Happy New Year!

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to put a quick post! Happy New Year! I hope you are enjoying yourself with friends and family...or whatever.... ;-D

Just wanted to say I've got a lot of things planned and I'm looking forward to a new year! Thanks again all you readers who are still reading. It's been quite a bumpy ride so far. It will get smoother. ;-)

Thanks,
Casey

Update: WOW! It's been this long?

Hey everyone,

Oh my gosh! I haven't posted in 2 weeks! I am so sorry! I can't believe this happened. I guess I just couldn't keep track of things with the holidays and stuff that I got distracted and forgot about the blog. Once again, I'm sorry. Thanks if you are still reading ;-D

Well, for Christmas I got some very nice Lego stuff such as Lego A Love Story, The Unofficial Lego Builders Guide, and a 1 year subscription to Brickjournal (woo!).

I really want to post more often, I'm new year's resolution is to post 3 times a week (at least!). We'll see if I can keep it up! ;-D I'll try to post once of course before the new year. By the way, my surgery that I had went fine and stuff, but it is kinda hard to walk now. Oh well! More building, right? ;-D

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, more mosaics on the way,
~Casey~

"The Wall"

I'm not sure if you could technically call it a mosaic, it's more like a sculpture in my opinion, but Flickr user, torgugick, creates this really cool face coming out of a wall of somesort. For those of you that know (I don't ;-P ) he says it's Pink Floyd's "The Wall".

The most incredible part about it is that it is made only out of three different elements! It is made out of 2 types of 1x2 plates, and 1 type of a 1x1 plate. Awesome!

Mall of America LEGO Store Unveiling Mosaics

A bit of a "not so regular" post today, but I am subscribed to the youtube channel called, LegoClubTV , which I'm pretty sure is the "official"-ish Lego Company youtube channel. They recently posted a video of the Mall of America LEGO Store Unveiling, and they actually had mosaics in it!

Now, there are only a few and they are only in the beginning of the video, but boy are they awesome! Man, I wish I was there! ;-D

Check them out below:

"Ho ho ho! Merrrryyy Christmas!!!"

Flickr user, Alfred jr, posted a photo of a FFOL building/fixing/sitting by a Lego Santa mosaic during LEGO Kid's Fest 2010 of Hartford, CT. I'm not sure if the woman in the photo is the Flickr user (I doubt it), but if anyone can I.D. her for me, that would be great!

Anyway! The mosaic is awesome. ;-D



"Ho ho ho! Want do you want for Christmas, Susan? Lego! Of course you do! Ho ho ho..."

** Thanks to Bruce N H for sending me the link to the mosaic. If you have a mosaic you want to see featured, email me at mosaicbricks (at) gmail.com

"The weather outside is frightful, but the mosaics are so delightful..."

Flickr user, eilonwy77 (a.k.a. Katie Walker), creates a beautiful Holiday mosaic 9-pack filled to the brim with Christmas cheer that would fill up even the biggest of stockings.



Check out our interview with her here, in case you have missed it.

Update: Oh my gosh!!

Hey guys!

Another update. I've been really busy again lately. Lots upon lots of stuff going on. Just to let you know, I STILL think about the blog and stuff, I've just been really busy lately. Just letting you know.

I hope to continue posting Christmas things on the blog and stuff. I am going into surgery on Christmas Eve Eve so I won't be able to walk for around a month (or at least it will be dangerous and hard) so I will have lots of free time for posting!

Anyway, just wanted to tell you quickly that I exist. It has almost been a week since I last posted.

See ya'!
Casey

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa everyone (which ever holiday you celebrate)! We're now going to start spreading spirit here on MosaicBricks all through the month of December! Unfortunately, I'm unable to change the colors of the blog right now to green and red. It's weird because blogspot (the website blogging thing I use) has been acting up lately.

Anyway! On to mosaics!

MOCpages user, Jacub Maur, created a great mosaic of a snowman and a Christmas tree (Obviously, but that's what he called it).



It's actually a really, really big mosaic so make sure you check out the creation here to see the entire thing.

So, yeah, time to get in the Holiday spirit!

Update: Christmas Time is Here!

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to put up a quick little post. I've been a little busy lately with Thanksgiving, and Black Friday shopping and stuff, but don't worry, I'm still thinking about the blog! ;-)

The next post will come up December 1st and the whole blog will be redone to being Christmas themed! So make sure you check back then. See you around!

Thanks for reading!
Casey

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I trust all of you are having a great time with your relatives eating plenty of great food (and scoping out the great Black Friday deals)!

Unfortunately, I have some bad news. I looked everywhere for a thanksgiving or turkey style Lego mosaic, but I couldn't find one! So instead, I found a very cool turkey mosaic (non-Lego). Enjoy!



Once again, Happy Thanksgiving!

Seperation of Day and Night

MOCpages user, alyska bailey peterson, creates an absolutely beautiful stained glass window.


Here's a description of the mosaic MOC via the post on MOCpages:

This trans Lego stained glass mosaic, measuring 15x28", is based on the stained glass window "Creation: Day Four" at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Bilton, Rugby, England. The original window was designed by artist Aidan McRae Thomson in 1998-9.

This is the first in a series of five panels based on the creation story that I'm working on, hopefully to exhibit as a pentych at Brickworld 2011 in Wheeling, Illinois. (I'm already halfway through the second panel as of this posting!)

View the MOC here.

"It's a bird! It's a plane! It's another superman mosaic!!!"

We're back again with another superman mosaic! Bricshelf user, davidmackenzie, has an image (I'm not positive if this mosaic is made by this user) of a great, giant superman mosaic with a great use of color.



The mosaics just keep on getting bigger and bigger!

My Good Friend Dug Who Digs

Brickshelf user, MichaelLau, creates several mosaics on one baseplate of characters and monsters from the 8-bit arcade game, "Dig Dug", a favorite of mine (while my dad is a huge Pac-Man fan).



Check out the rest of MichaelLau's cool video game mosaics, here.

"Got any kings? Go fish!"

Flickr user, Marin Stipkovic creates the King of Diamonds from a 52 card deck. The mosaic is incredible with great parts useage and excecution!



Be sure to check out Marin Stipkovic's flickr stream to see some of his other great creations (especially his scaled up ones).

** Thanks to Katie Walker and Bruce N H for sending me the link to the mosaic. If you have a mosaic you want to see featured, email me at mosaicbricks (at) gmail.com

"It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a...mosaic!!!"

MOCpages user, Michael Taylor creates the famous Superman symbol in Lego mosaic form.



I personally am not really a superman fan, so you can view his Batman and Spiderman symbols here (Woo! Batman!). You can also view a Lego comic book specific blog here. ComicBricks, run by Bruce N H.

* Edit - Hahahahaha, looks like Bruce beat me to the punch for blogging this...go (mini)figure.

** Thanks to Katie Walker for sending me the link to the mosaic. If you have a mosaic you want to see featured, email me at mosaicbricks (at) gmail.com

"1.21 Gigawatts? 1.21 Gigawatts? Great Scott!"

November 10th, 2010! Today marks the 25th anniversary of the very first Back to the Future movie. I actually saw the whole trilogy a little earlier in the year (around May), and those were great movies (Although I didn't quite agree with the third movie's theology behind time travel and such).

Exactly a month ago, icgetaway built a mosaic of the famous DeLorean in the movie, going back to the future.



In BTTF 2, they go to the year 2010, and they have hover boards, but yet, We don't right now!! Man!...

** Thanks to Bruce N H for sending me the link to the mosaic. If you have a mosaic you want to see featured, email me at mosaicbricks (at) gmail.com

Interview: Dave Ware (Brickwares)

Dave Ware, a titan in the mosaic world, has built some awesome mosaics. Over the course of a few days, I was fortunate enough to interview him over the course of a few days about him, his "War of the Worlds" mosaic, and his experience at Brickcon.

Who are you?

"I’m Dave Ware (Brickwares). I’m an AFOL who specializes in LEGO Mosaics. I’m a husband and father. I live in Calgary, Canada, and I work in as a Business/Systems analyst in the Energy industry."

How long have you been into/playing with Lego? Have you ever had a dark age?

"I loved LEGO as a kid, my friend had all of the space sets, and I would play for hours, making mostly the interiors of ships etc. My dark age would be from the usual (13? 14?) until I was about 27, when I saw the Witch’s Windship, and bought it on impulse. Since then, I’ve been collecting sets. I started building mosaics in 2006, after a trip to the local science center with my almost 3 year old son. It was a LEGO Egypt exhibit, and I was fascinated with the map they had built, and wondered if I could make something like that. The answer is “yes”. I started experimenting with colors and designs, and have built around 20 mosaics in the last four years, and have been honored to win the Best Mosaic category at BrickCon in both 2009 and 2010. These days I’m looking at ways of expanding by mosaic building into a side business, trying to find art galleries to hang my pieces in, etc."

How and when did you find the online Lego community?
"I started searching on the web for other mosaics probably in 2006. Early on, I was using MOCpages a lot, but these days I pretty much post my works on my website (brickwares.com), as well as my facebook group and flickr. I’ve made a lot of friends through attending BrickCon the past 2 years, and most of them I stay in touch with through Flickr and facebook. Readingwise, I enjoy Brothers Brick and Eurobricks, and check in daily to see what other people are building. Seriously, the best thing about this hobby is the imagination and creativity that people show, with seemingly no limits."

What themes do you like to build in? (if any?)

"I like building Town stuff, mostly. I’ve been collecting the “Cafe Corner” style sets, and have a nice street made up. I’m trying to learn how to work in that style so that I can make my own buildings, as I’ve been taking a lot of pictures of wonderful style houses in my travels. I also have a soft spot in my heart for the Islanders theme (sub theme of pirates). I can’t explain it, I just really like them."

Ok, now let's move on to your mosaic, "The War of the Worlds."

Where did the inspiration for this mosaic come from?

"Apart from portrait style mosaics, I like to make mosaics of comic book covers, art deco style stuff, and generally iconic images. The important thing to remember about larger scale mosaic building is that you’re going to be working on, and staring at, the image for dozens of hours, so you HAVE to choose subject material that inspires you, something you’re excited about. I had done a classics illustrated comic book cover last year (“To The Stars”,), and found that the comic book covers really have a lot of style and big splashes of color, without being overly intricate. Often I’ll just randomly do Google Image Searches, and also on flickr, to find subjects I think are interesting, and save them to an “idea” folder. I’m a big sci fi fan, as well as a comic book reader, so War of the Worlds was a natural fit. The thing that really grabbed me after I started tinkering with the image was that there were big areas of bold color, which really stand out for me."

The mosaic is absolutely huge! It's one of the biggest I've ever seen. How did you go about designing such a large project?

"It’s big, for sure. I’ve made a couple that were bigger than this, but not many. This past summer for the opening of the first Canadian LEGO brand store, I built a Stampede Poster mosaic that was 7 feet tall by 5 feet wide . And to certain, there are bigger ones out there. The issue you run in to, quickly, is that more baseplates means more brick, and adding a row or column to the mosaic translates to a LOT of brick and time. When I’m trying to sort out how big something needs to be in order to pull the details I need, I always have to keep in mind that adding 1 baseplate in width could translate to an extra 4-5 baseplates worth of brick."

Once it was all designed, how does it stand right side up? Do the bricks connect to baseplates, or do you glue them, or something else?

"The baseplates (X-large) are drilled through, and attached with screws to a piece of 5/8 or ½ inch MDF. I tried plywood in the past, but it bends too easily. There’s a LOT of weight, and it tends to warp the wood quickly. Most people tend to use plate, which would be a lot lighter. I’ve never switched over, I work only in brick. I use everything from 1x1 up to 2x10. I’ve never glued, as that would easily double the time involved, and make the works permanent. That’s fine if it’s for a commission, but with stuff around the house, I generally want to build something else sooner or later, and use the bricks again. Also, it’s LEGO. It won’t fall off or loosen unless lots of people are touching it. For something really public where folks are touching, I’d consider glue."

Were there any other particular challenges that went along with building this mosaic?

"The biggest challenge was one of capacity. I built this for BrickCon 2010, and I wasn’t about to trust it to the airlines, so I knew I’d be driving it, which meant I had to keep the size down to something that would fit in my CR-V. Width-wise I was fine, but it was too tall. I had to remove the top row of16x32 baseplates, and mount those to a separate piece of MDF, and then assemble on site. Recently I installed this piece in a local comic book store, so I had to do it all again. Essentially, there’s a point where big mosaics become all about carpentry!

The other issue I ran into, is that skin color doesn’t translate well in LEGO, so while there is a tan color, it’s not quite right. So for the central gunner in the picture, who was wearing a tank top in the original, I added some camo sleeves to avoid this. Also, there’s a lot of fine detail towards the bottom, so there was some changing and new color choices involved in trying to keep some of the detail."

Next, we're on to Brickcon...

What was your experience at Brickcon 2010 like?

"I had a blast at BrickCon. It’s a great chance to meet other AFOLs, to get inspired about new things, and to see the brilliant creations that people come up with. I made a lot of new friends, and tried out a few new things, like the Speed and Master build challenges. I recommend going to BrickCon, or the other conventions to everyone. Because of the size of the mosaics, and the fragility of them, I end up driving down. It’s a two day trip, but I really enjoyed the whole experience."

Was there a large presence of mosaics there?

"I think there might have been fewer mosaics this year, but the quality was certainly there. There was a beautiful castle mosaic in a very classic style, an Obama “Hope” poster, and a few others."

You also mentioned that you won an award for the War of the World's mosaic which is also your second mosaic award from Brickcon. What was that like? Were you shocked to win again?

I was honored to win the award, it’s always thrilling to be recognized, especially by your peers. While I don’t build the mosaics for BrickCon for awards, it’s certainly a nice pat on the back. Hopefully we can encourage other people to create mosaics for next year.

Do you plan on going to Brickcon next year?

"I’m planning on going. It’s a long time from now till then, but unless something major comes up, I’ll be there."

And lastly...

What does the future hold for Dave Ware?

"Short term, I’m working on displaying my work in local shops and hopefully a gallery. Long term, I’d love to do this for a living. Until then, I’ll keep building things I like, and hopefully others will feel the same way."

Many thanks to Dave Ware for the interview! Even more thanks for your patience! ;-D View all kinds of things about Dave, below:

- Flickr - MOCpages - Website -
- TV Mini-Interview - Facebook Page -

"A tail isn't a tail to them, it's just a little bit extra at the back."

Flickr user, mandy314, creates the very gloomy, and sad donkey from Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore. What I really like about the mosaic, is that there is a great use of color going on here.



Be sure to stop my mandy's flickr stream, because she has a lot more, awesome mosaics on it. Find it: here.

Update: Got a mosaic you want to see featured?

Email me!

Hey guys, just wanted to say that if you have an awesome mosaic that you saw and would like to see it blogged, or someone you want to be interviewed, email me! I've taken a couple suggestions in the past, and I'm just publicly telling people that they can email their suggestions to:

mosaicbricks(at*)gmail.com
*at put in so I don't get spammed and such, just remove it and add in the "@" symbol when sending.

I'm not saying I'm running out of content, I'm just giving people the opportunity. I'll check it around every other day, so yeah...

Anyway, I've got another interview on the horizon so look for that soon!

So remember, email me, thanks!

~Casey~

Creations for Charity 2010

A really cool charity is back for a second run, Creations for Charity. A charity organization run by Nannan Z. for underprivileged children. Here's the announcement:

"Creations for Charity 2010 is here! This is an annual fundraiser where builders donate MOCs to sell and raise money to buy Lego for underprivileged children. This is probably the only occasion where buyers can own the original Lego creations by diverse and talented builders (while funding a good cause too!). Last year we sold 30 creations ranging from custom minifigures to spaceships. We donated almost $3,000 worth of Lego to Toys for Tots! Starting now, you can contact me for MOC contributions through December 1st. Please check out the full details here. We’re planning to set a new record this year and I hope to see many of you take part in the success of Creations for Charity 2010!"

One such thing donated was a mosaic of Harry Potter by Jordan Schwartz.


It is still up for grabs and it's for a great cause. Get it while you can! Here's a bunch of links for you to check out:

Creations for Charity Eurobricks Annoucnement
Nannan's Creations for Charity Flickr Announcement
Creations for Charity Brothers Brick Announcement
Creations for Charity Flickr Group

'Tis the Season to visit Dentist!

Put on your Halloween costume and head out to collect succulent amounts of dentist drawing delights! It's that time of year for carving pumpkins and watching the Charlie Brown Halloween special! A time of Lego mosaics!

I've collected five great Halloween mosaics from across the web and assembled them for a very special MosaicBricks Halloween post.

First up, we have a double feature from eilonwy77 (Katie Walker). Two cheese slope mosaics, one a neat little spider on top, and a cool jack-o-lantern on the bottom.



Second, we have a scary face with a ton of different colors by DJ Baggadonuts.

Third, we have another mosaic by DJ Baggadonuts that will forever haunt me. ;-D



Fourth, we have a very creepy mosaic from the "Phantom Zone from the Superman I/Superman II films". Regardless, it's an awesome zombie looking mosaic built by Reasonably Clever Chris (Doyle)

Lastly we have our fifth, and final mosaic of the post. Frankenstein's monster, forever haunted by fire, is built beautifully in a cool technique in which you built SNOT vertically and horizontally at the same time. It looks awesome! Built by Legohaulic.



Happy Halloween! Have fun everyone! Try and beat my record of 30 lbs. worth of candy (2005)! :-)

~Casey~

Interview: Albert (au_riverhorse)

Au_Riverhorse is a somewhat little known AFOL with some very awesome mosaics! He's been previously blogged here on MB, for his cool green army man mosaic. For my fourth interview I was able to talk to him about himself, his mosaics, and his experience at Brickworld 2010.

Who are you?

"Hi, I'm Albert. Yep. Oh, and Canadian, Greater Toronto Area. The interesting parts of the 'who am I' question are really in my other answers."

How long have you been in to/playing with Lego? Have you ever had a dark age?

"I have happy memories of shuffling DUPLO boats and trains, my dad assembling an airport set with me around my third birthday, so I guess it's been a while! The blocks were put aside during high school, roughly corresponding to the end of the Royal Knights line, the introduction of Starcraft, and a move. They found the light of day for a university project, but it wasn't until Battlestar Galactica (and after university) that I tried my hand at making something of my own again. So, thank you, BSG."

How and when did you find the online Lego community?

"I had heard about Brickshelf in 2007, but wasn't aware of the existence of LEGO conventions until 2008, when I found out about BrickCon through The Brothers Brick. I browsed their links, went to the convention (air miles!), found Flickr, and have been easing my way in since."

What themes do you like to build in? (if any?)

"I got back into LEGO thinking that I would do a lot of space (because of BSG) or castle (because those were my favourite sets), but it hasn't worked out that way. It looks like I build to purpose, to express an idea, or to try one out. So, you've got a couple of contest entries, an amateurish response to a bathroom renovation headache, and tinkering with CubeDudes. Lately, I'm comfortably bouncing between mosaics and miniland figures, but if I mix the two categories then I would get sculptures..."

Now, let's move on to mosaics...

Why do you enjoy making mosaics? Has it been something from your childhood, or something that has recently developed?

"Mosaics are relatively new to me. I tried one of Taylor Swift in mid-2009, and after struggling to get a computer-generated template it was really relaxing to just let my mind coast a little and pop in all of the pieces. It being my first mosaic (and Taylor Swift), I also took the time to align all the 'LEGO' etchings on the top of the bricks!

A lack of pieces and the confusion about making templates kept me from exploring this further, but driving out to Brickworld 2010 meant that I could attend two mosaic workshops, and fill my car up with little plastic bricks. After that, it was off to the races!"

Do you have a favorite mosaic you've made (so far)?

"Besides Taylor Swift? I wouldn't say so, although a few are still up in my LEGO room. What I enjoy is that, so far, there's been something new to discover or try out from doing each mosaic - insights into borders, cramming detail into small spaces, freehand adjustments to initial templates, use of colour..."

In one such mosaic of yours (my favorite), "Bandit", the mosaic is built sideways, which had me scratching my head for quite a while. What's the story behind this mosaic?

"Well, this one started from Brickworld, packing Pick-A-Brick cups with pink 1x1 bricks without a clue as to why. After coming back home, I had about one thousand pink bricks, an itch to make a mosaic, and still no ideas. Mixing 'pink' and 'picture' led to my photogenic friend, who graciously allowed me to use a picture of her playing with a scarf. I also had grays and green, so it was an easy decision to go for grayscale with pink accents."

Was it (The Bandit Mosaic) particularly hard to make being sideways?

"There were a number of challenges - the first was cleaning up the original image, then getting a good template. I had tried tilting the image while working on it, but wound up tilting my head too and getting neck cramps. Repeatedly rotating the image kept blurring and moving the colour edges, so eventually I had to restart from earlier saved files and get something that was usable enough to be adjusted freehand. The diamond portrait managed to capture the face, scarf, and hands while keeping the pink and background brick count down, so I guess it worked out!"

On the topic of Brickworld 2010, despite it being three months ago, what was your experience at the convention like?

"Wow, I have to think back a little, now. I remember that it was a huge operation. After registering, it took me half a day of seminars and browsing the main room before realizing that there were more rooms to see! I chose to take in many of the seminars, including the mosaic classes, and the movie theater. Those were probably the more relaxing activities, since focusing on a single topic kept me from getting overwhelmed with everything on display!"

Were there a large presence of mosaics there, or any you found particularly interesting?

"Yeah, mosaics were well represented there, mostly off in one room. Of note: it was fun seeing "The Portrait of Dorian Bley" in person, and the transparent pieces used for "The Great Wave of Kanagawa" gave it a whole other dimension."

Did you attend or help out with any of the mosaic workshops?

"Actually, since Brickworld is around Father's Day, our family made it a big road trip, and I got my parents signed up for the basic mosaic class. That worked out great, since they got to make something to take back as a souvenir. I picked up their notes and attended the advanced class, where we explored ways of jamming the 1x1 stud area with more detail and color. These two classes gave me the kick I needed to get started with my own stuff, so I'm glad I went!"

Do you plan on going again next year?

"That's the plan, for sure. And since Brickworld 2011 will feature 'the world of light and sound', I've been kicking around ideas on how to incorporate that into a mosaic..."

What does the future hold for au_riverhorse?

"Well, on the mosaics skills side I'd like to explore different techniques - studs up, mixing studs up/out, transparent pieces, layers and relief, color schemes, dithering vs. blocks of color...I'd also like to do more freehand pieces and try to develop a more intuitive feel for how things fit, as inspired by the amazing play (I know it's 'work' and it's work, but it looks so fun!) of Katie Walker. Beyond techniques, I've just finished making a wedding mosaic with a few friends, and I think I like that sort of thing, doing pieces for people. Who knows where that could lead?"

A big thanks to Albert for doing the interview! To check out Albert's creations, view his Flickr stream here

.

The Coolest MMORPG on the Web!

Since early 2010 (somewhere around March), I had the privilege of being a beta-tester for LEGO Universe. Not one of those people who's the very first person to try out the game, but I was still a tester very early on. I must say, watching the game develop from then, to now, has been a lot of fun. Seeing what I thought the game was going to be, to seeing it now is unreal. The minifigs for this game are insane! I thought you could had cool armor, but not awesome armor! Anyway, as the summer wrapped up and I got busy, I no longer could play the beta. I just didn't have any time, and then in late September, the beta finally closed. I'm not a full blown player, but I've seen some pretty sweet screenshots.

Anyway, in LEGOLAND California (I've been there once!), now has a brand new "Club House" that features LEGO Universe. Inside the club house, there's an awesome mosaic for the four main characters that represent the four different factions. Sentinel, Adventure, Assembly, and Paradox.



Check out more about the Clubhouse in Legoland here: LINK. And you can watch the brand new trailer for Lego Universe here: LINK

Van Gogh's Starry Night

Ed Hall or "Buxley" (unconfirmed, but I'm pretty sure it's him), recreated (back in 2001) Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night painting in Lego mosaic form. It's entirely built with 1x1s.



You can read more on this awesome mosaic: here

"Who lives under a pineapple under the sea?"

Flickr user, lights (and his wife), built the famous sea-sponge that swept the deep blue sea. (err...bikini bottom...err...world...or USA...)



"Absorbent and yellow and porous is he!"

"The White Lotus Tile is much more than just a game of Pai Sho!"

Flickr user, Crimson Wolf, creates a very intricate and unique mosaic of a white lotus flower breaking through the pavement (or at least that's what I thought it was. ;-D )



(If anyone knows what TV show the quote for this post's title is from, leave a comment saying what TV show it's from, and I'll give you a virtual cookie!)
- Casey

"We are looking for Blue's clues! We are looking for Blue's clues!"

Flickr user, Brickfrenzy, creates the logo from the extremely popular kids' show, Blue's Clues.


"Maybe we should play Blue's Clues to figure out what she wants to do today!" - Steve

MosaicBricks' New Header!

After recently interviewing her, Katie Walker built two awesome mosaics that said "mosaic bricks". One of them is now the brand new header for the blog!



Thanks Katie! *Links to her stuff above*

"Go Fish!"

Lugnet user, Robert Enloe, creates a great joker card. The size of the mosaic is huge compared to the table it's sitting on. I also think that it's SNOT (Studs not on top), as well.



Very cool, and possibly a little creepy??? Check out the gallery: here

Interview: Katie Walker (eilonwy77)

Katie Walker is a FFOL pioneering the niche of patterns, designs, and stained glass cheese slope windows, developing new and creative designs. Over the course of a few days, I was able to talk with her about herself, her building, and her experience at Brickcon 2010.

Who are you?

"My name is Katie Walker, and I’m 32 years old. I’m married and am currently staying home to deal with the shenanigans of my 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son."

How long have you been in to/playing with Lego?, and have you ever had a dark age?

"I remember playing with DUPLO when I was young. I loved to connect a bunch of the train cars together, and then build houses on top of them, so that my DUPLO people could live entirely on a train. Sometime around my 12th birthday I decided that I really loved Legos (yes! We called them “Legos”! Heresy!) and told everyone to get me Castle and Pirate sets for my birthday and Christmas presents. I spent many a happy afternoon during my early teens building away in my room.

I did have a dark age which essentially started when I left for college. I did bring my LEGO collection with me, and a few times dumped it out on my dorm floor so my friends and I could fiddle around with it. After college, my friends and I re-enacted the song “Space Oddity” with LEGO, including dangling rocket ships over the edge of the loft where my bedroom was. But I think you could say those were just dim points of light in a dark age that lasted till we bought the first DUPLO bricks for my daughter."

How and when did you find the online Lego community?

"In 2008 my husband and I bought our daughter a 33-piece DUPLO set. It became quickly apparent that I couldn’t build anything cool with just 33 pieces. I did some investigating and discovered e-bay, and then BrickLink. It wasn’t long before we’d built up a fairly impressive DUPLO collection. At some point during my attempts to find cheap bricks I became exposed to some of the other LEGO activity on the web. I discovered the existence of LEGO blogs in 2009 and suddenly became aware of how cool LEGO creations could be. I also realized that lots of people posted their pictures on flickr, and I had an account there already. So I started posting our DUPLO pictures, and shortly thereafter created the LEGO DUPLO flickr group.

In the fall of 2009 I got out my “little Legos” (as we call them) to show my daughter. I fiddled with them a bit then, but mostly just came to the sad realization that my “immense” collection was actually teeny-tiny by AFOL standards. It wasn’t till 2010 that I finally bought some more of the smaller bricks and got around to really using them. I feel like that really marked my entrance into the online LEGO community. People started leaving positive comments on my photos, which gave me the confidence to start participating in groups and forums."

What themes do you like to build in?

"The majority of my building thus far has just been about me trying to teach myself how the bricks go together. During this process I’ve come to realize that I’m rather obsessed with patterns and geometric designs. Occasionally I pause from those investigations and make a more official MOC. Those have all fallen in the Castle theme, partly because I really like castles, but also because there are lots of opportunities to display the patterns I discover in a fancy palace."

Now, lets talk about your designs and patterns...

When did the "obsession" with patterns and geometric designs start? Have you always enjoyed them since you were young (or younger), or is this a new thing?

"I’ve been interested in geometric designs off and on since the elementary school art class where I learned that you could make an apparent curve out of straight lines. Over the years I would draw geometric designs, such as the ones seen here. I didn’t really set out to do geometric designs in LEGO, but once I started doing them I found them very compelling."

Did making the designs and patterns come easy to you? Or was there a there a learning curve you had to overcome? Or...has it always been a uphill battle the whole time?

"Making designs and patterns is very easy for me. Often I will be trying to make something non-geometric, but a pattern just somehow comes out instead. It feels a lot like plugging numbers into a formula and having it spit out results. My struggles have been in making something that isn’t obsessively symmetrical; photography has been another challenge for me."


Recently, you've made a "switch" to doing stained glass windows that are made out "cheese slope" pieces, maybe a little more "mosaic" side of your building. What brought these about?

"I was trying to design an intricate floor for a MOC. While working on that design, I came up with the need to somehow fill an empty square which had sides 2.4 studs long. The solution to the problem came through using “cheese slope cubes”, which is just two cheese slopes placed together to form a cube shape. I had to add in some 1x1 plates to make it work, which then sparked some ideas for other cheese slope cube patterns. Then once I had done a few, it seemed like a great idea to try to do them in transparent colors and make them into windows. After a little bit of experimenting, more ornate designs started to develop.

Were these especially challenging, as well?

"Yes! The cheese slopes do not attach to each other; they are all held together by compression and friction. They are rather small to work with, and I often have to use a toothpick to try to finesse them into the right spot. They have a tendency to tip over, and it is a true pain to try to frame them securely enough to stand completed patterns up as windows. Another problem is that cheese slopes are shaped like triangles with one of their points cut off, so a lot of patterns end up with disfiguring gaps where the missing points ought to be. I truly get pains in my neck from working with them! But the results were so lovely that I wanted to keep at it. Besides, challenges can be lots of fun. I do get the urge to scream a little, though, when I have an unprotected window that dislodges and “shatters” to pieces. I didn’t have enough transparent bricks to hold the upper windows of the atrium in place, and one of them did come apart when I was moving it around trying to photograph it. That night I had all sorts of bad dreams about my stained glass windows falling apart and raining down cheese slopes on me."

(Link to the completed atrium: LINK | Link to the back side: LINK )

Do you have a favorite (or especially rewarding) cheese slope stain glass window, or pattern/design of yours?

"I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I haven’t been able to pick out a favorite. What I really like is the sense of discovery, of figuring out how different elements can fit together. I think that’s part of what makes LEGO fun for lots of people: you get the chance to put the bricks together in different ways and see what happens. There are literally an infinite amount of possibilities. At times I feel a bit like a scientist, trying out a certain idea and seeing what happens. Sometimes a particular pattern is especially difficult to figure out, and then I tell myself “I will make this happen!” Then I do feel a bit more rewarded when I finally get it to work."

Over the course of the summer and up 'til now, you've been gaining a lot more notoriety, and I'd say becoming a pioneer in patterns and designs. You've been blogged here, and posted there. What has that experience been like?

"Honestly, the best word that I can think of to describe it is “bizarre”. After the first time I was blogged at The Brothers Brick, I got a ton of views and comments on my flickr account. It was hard to believe that that many people were interested in something I had made. Then I got excited, thinking to myself, “Wow, maybe I’m not that bad at this.” That brief moment of optimism was quickly followed by getting really nervous. I felt like I could never build anything else that would live up to that again. Anything else I made was bound to be a disappointment.


But then after a few days things settled down and my fingers wanted to start moving bricks round into crazy patterns again. (It does seem like my fingers are the parts of me that figure things out; I think my brain is only an assistant in the process.) I still like to say that my reservoir of ideas is going to run dry in the near future; how many patterns can there possibly be to discover? But thus far my fingers always manage to figure out something else, and I remember that there are an infinite number of possibilities. Then the cycle tends to start over: I make something, and if it turns out well, I get excited, quickly followed by becoming a bit anxious about it. The public attention, to whatever extent I get it, is both exciting and nerve-wracking."

What was your experience at Brickcon like?

"I went to BrickCon with my mother for the day on Saturday. I was a bit frazzled when I got there, because Snoqualmie Pass had been closed for rock blasting, and we had to sit on the freeway for quite awhile. I thought I’d be too late to register, but thankfully they let me in. I took the atrium with the fountain and stained glass windows, and then threw in a spider mosaic I had been trying to design for a friend to use. I was so nervous and shaky when I got there that I could hardly set up my MOCs. The stained glass windows got most of the attention, but the spider was the MOC that won an award, for best small mosaic. That was exciting.

Overall, the experience was a lot of fun. I was a nervous wreck much of the time, because I tend to be shy and have a hard time talking to new people. But the LEGO creations there were really fantastic, and once I started talking to people, I found that they were all really nice. Now I keep thinking about the different things I saw and did at BrickCon, and look forward to being able to attend again in the future, hopefully for more than just one day."


Was there a large presence of mosaics there?

"There were some. Someone mentioned to me that there weren’t as many as in past years, but the large ones that were there caught the eye. Truthfully, I didn’t see many small mosaics. I think that the favored technique of making mosaics using 1x1 bricks works best on a larger scale, so most mosaics tend to be larger. I’ve been working on using cheese slopes to create more angles and details in a mosaic on a smaller scale, but I have only seen a few other people do this. (Building a Battle Bug is a much more popular endeavor!) My goal is to be able to incorporate small mosaics into larger MOCs as window, wall, or floor decorations."

What does the future hold for Katie Walker?

"The future will mostly hold more of the same. I don’t have any big projects planned, being short of both bricks, time, and space. I’ll probably just keep experimenting and getting new ideas, and then occasionally will try to incorporate them into a more official MOC, though I imagine they’ll remain on a fairly small scale for quite awhile. I hope to visit BrickCon for a day next week. I’d like to go for longer, but can’t really be away from my kids for that long yet."

NOTE: Many thanks to Katie Walker for the interview and the long delay of its posting. Thank you for your patience. ;-) For her links look below:

Flickr - MOCpages

DK Attempts to break Guinness World Record of Largest Lego Mosaic

Special Announcement:

Saturday 23rd, Sunday 24th and Monday 25th October. 10am - 5pm Saturday & Sunday and 10am, LEGO & Dorling Kindersley have got together to promote the launch of the LEGO Star Wars Brickmaster book. It will be a free event at Shoreditch Town Hall, London and an attempt to break the Guinness World Record of the largest LEGO mosaic ever assembled. Pictured above, the dimensions of the mosaic will be 16 meters x 7 meters comprised of 1,500 baseplates and 384,000 LEGO bricks. You can attend this free event by registering on the DK site. Registered attendees will also be included in a drawing for a 4 tickets to LEGOLand Windsor. You can read all the details and register at the DK website.

Sounds pretty exciting! I wish I could be there! From what I know though, that will break the record of the largest mosaic which is currently in the Unofficial Lego Museum in Ohio, USA.

Sources:
- Brickset
- FBTB (From Bricks to Bothans)

Update: I'm not Dead!!

Hey everyone,

Just to let you know, I'm still alive. Apologies for not getting the blog running in stuff. School is intense this year. Stinkin' freshman year...

Anyway, I was just saying that I think about this everyday and stuff.

I have a lot of things planned for the blog, though! Coverage of Brickcon, three interviews, and an announcement about a world record breaker!

Stay Tuned!
Casey

"I pledge allegiance, to the mouse..."

Flickr user, my_disney_pics, creates a beautiful, patriotic mosaic of one of the world's most famous mice saluting the American flag.



"And to the Magic Kingdom, for which it stands, one nation, under Walt Disney..."