Lessons in Rotational Symmetry

I'm going through my old mail from when I was busy teaching and had no time for LEGO.  Ironically, my friend Susan (LegoMyMamma) sent me a link to a website that talks about how a teacher used LEGO mosaics to help teach her students about rotational symmetry.  Let's see.... a teacher who likes LEGO mosaics and rotational symmetry.  Yes.  That would be something I would definitely be interested in.  Anyway, here is the link to the write-up about it.  If you're anything like me, you might be interested in it too! 

MOC - 2013 Train Festival in Nantou

I don't see a lot of written descriptions about these mosaics, only that they seemed to be on display for the MOC - 2013 Train Festival in Nantou, Taiwan.  Lixia_1982 posted a lot of cool pictures from the festival.

Here are a few of the mosaics:











So many of them are so stylized and cheerful. I don't normally see mosaics like those, and I really like them.

Not all bricks are created equal

Ryan H. (eldeeem) made this exciting LEGO mosaic:



Thrilling, isn't it?  But actually, it gets much more interesting when looked at under UV light:



All of those bricks are regular red bricks, not dark red or anything special.  It's just that some red bricks glow more under UV light than others do.  Strange, huh?  Time to start making some secret messages!

There is another comparison of colors under UV light that Ryan did here. 

Check out those wings!

Here's a closer look:

Aren't they beautiful?  OliveSeon posted this fun scene with this beautiful (and perhaps deadly?) butterfly.

Looking back through OliveSeon's photostream, I see some more cool mosaic work, such as on the floor of this hangar

As usual, I'm in love with mosaics used in larger models.  Check out OliveSeon's photostream for more photos of these neat dioramas. 

Red, White, Blue, and Brick

Today in what is commonly referred to as...'Murica, we celebrate our independence day. I'd like to showcase a ton of American Flags. Enjoy!

Lego Store Monthly Minibuilds for July of 2009. Photo by TooMuchDew.

American Flag by lachme.

American Flag. Photo by mhuffman.

American Flag in Transparent Pieces by Arthur Gugick.

A much larger American Flag in Transparent pieces. Photo by Goldenfire.

 

The Marine Corps War Memorial/Iwo Jima Memorial from the Legoland California Park. Photo by Eric Lumsden.

 

American Flag (from presumably another Legoland of some sort). Photo by allyhook.

 

The Lego Millyard Project by pzmancha.

 

Lex Luthor for President! by Oky - Space Ranger. Not necessarily 4th of July related, but...It'll do. ;)

 

4th of July 2009 by Tofer Watts.
'MURICA by Joel.Baker.

Tyler Clites did another one of his EMOTE's. This time: Independence Day.

Lastly, we have...

...the Iwo Jima Picture recreation. Photo by TooMuchDew. Story from his Flickr post here:
"Participants at WWB created the mosaic depicting US Marines and a Navy corpsman raising the US flag on Iwo Jima — the scene that was the basis for Joe Rosenthal’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph and an iconic moment in US history. The mosaic was constructed on 225 Blue LEGO 10″ x 10″ baseplates and covers 156 square feet of wall space (12.5 ft x 12.5 ft or 230,400 studs)! Participants were rewarded with their choice of a custom US Marine or Army Ranger minifig for each 10″ x 10″ baseplate completed. The mosaic is comprised of the the original LEGO color palette: Blue baseplates and Red, White, Yellow and Black plates and will be on permanent display at Brickmania Toyworks."

Happy 4th! (Even to our non-US readers, so...just have a great day!)