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. 

Color-riffic!

Andy Hung (andybear0426) recently completed a couple of lovely mosaics with some captivating colors.  First is the London Routemaster.  Andy says he adjusted the colour of the background and the bus to make a bigger contrast and increase the sense of art.  I think it was a great choice.

Routemaster Mosaic 1

Andy also made this mosaic to celebrate the Buddha's birthday.  The colors are fantastic, and I really like the contrast between the square and round pixels (seen in the calligraphy).

Lego Buddha 01

More Spying, this time with More Kitties

I know I just posted an I Spy scatter mosaic that I made, but here is another one that you might also like: 



My kids love it, and they love looking for the things inside of it.  Click on the photo to take you to the original page, where there is the poem with the clues of things to look for. 

Now to get back to posting some of the fantastic mosaics other people have made.... there is quite a backlog!  ;-)

I Spy a Mosaic

I finally "built" something, and Bruce has prodded me into posting it.  I guess it is a mosaic -- a scatter mosaic, although that is a bit of a misnomer, because everything is very carefully placed. 

My kids have been getting into the I Spy books, where you have to look for objects mentioned in a corresponding poem.  A lot of the illustrations are photographs of a multitude of scattered objects.  One of my favorites has the objects arranged in the shape of a bird.  I thought it'd be fun to do something similar in LEGO for my kids. 



So then I had to come up with the rhyming verses, too:

I spy a pie, a monster's green legs,
Six butterflies and a bird that lays eggs.
A turtle, a clam, seven long snakes,
Four forks, three knives, and a pan to bake cakes.

I spy three jewels, a mirror, a purse,
An otoscope and thermometer made for a nurse;
Two crocodile tails and an alien's head,
Three frogs playing leapfrog and a bug that is red.

I spy a TV, four stars, and four hearts,
A crosswalk, a 60, and four arms hacked in parts;
Three kinds of fruit, a pan in the sun,
A metal detector, a hat, and two kinds of gun.

I spy a paw print, two flags, and two balls,
A TV and two walkies for making some calls;
A flask, a suitcase, and eleven flowers,
And if you're like my kids...
You'll be here for hours.

LEGO in the Tube

Sorry to be so neglectful to this blog.  It is looking like I will be working full-time all next year, too, so I suppose it won't be the last time it happens.  But for now, here is a link with pictures showing 5 Tube maps made with LEGO, built to celebrate 150 years of the London Underground:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-22882678

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've been writing for the Friends Bricks blog, and also for the LEGO Friends Inspire Girls Globally blog. 

There's a forum, too!  Come join us!  ;-)

Message from the Friends Bricks community:

"We are a worldwide community of Friends fans: Our members are AFOLs, TFOLs, Parents, Sisters and Brothers -- some seasoned LEGO fans & builders, and some newly discovering the love of building through Friends bricks. Our core purpose is sharing creations, reviews & news. Since the January 1st, 2012 launch of LEGO Friends, Heartlake City life has been inspiring us. Stop by www.FriendsBricks.com and join in the Friendship!"
___________________________________________________
Feel free to share this Valentine's card with your friends & family :-)

Reflection and Perspective

Dave Shaddix keeps pumping out great mosaics. 

I really like the illusion of light in this one, both in the differences in shading on the different sides of Buzz Aldrin's body, and in the reflection of the helmet.  Apparently, the reflection in the original photograph shows the LEM and the photographer, Neil Armstrong. 

Dave follows up this foray into space with another space-themed mosaic, an "adaptation in LEGO of the "Earthrise" photo taken by astronaut William Anders during the Apollo 8 mission, the first manned voyage to orbit the Moon."

 

You can read more about the original photograph and get a close-up shot of this mosaic here.  Be sure to check out the different colors it uses.

It's super effective!

Flickr user, DarthNick, made an excellent Pokémon Sky-Fi Stadium for the Eurobricks Micro Sci-Fi Contest (MSFC).

The actual stadium part of the creation includes a wonderful, cheese-slope Pokéball mosaic.

Best of luck to Nick in the contest, and make sure you check out the rest of his Lego creations here.

Starry Night

Alanboar made this LEGO rendition of Van Gogh's Starry Night:



I like the color swirls as well as the brick-built frame. 

Movie Posters

Arthur Gugick (torgugick) is working on a series of 3 movie posters.  The first two are done, and look fantastic.

Here is a poster for The Shining:

 

This one was made with 3500 decorated tiles.  The next one, from The Silence of the Lambs, was made with 5000 decorated tile pieces:

Those eyes... and the insect.... and the shading...  they're just amazing. 

Colors of the Brick

Sorry for the blitz in posting, but I finished a project and am ready to catch up on my backlog of mosaic posts.

Eldert (evhh) made this very interesting bas-relief colors collage.  I find myself staring at it for long stretches of time, admiring the pieces used and the color transitions.

Although it's not really of anything specific, I think it's one of my favorite mosaics that I've seen in awhile.  If I had the right kind of house (you know, the kind that looks more like an art museum and less like a daycare), I would love to hang something like this up on my walls. 

Mosaic Portraits

Mariann Asanuma (Model Gal) recently completed her first mosaic portrait of a real person.  At the size of 1 square foot, it's pretty small, but still containing lots of detail:

 

 

She wrote a lot about the design process on her Model Building Secrets blog. 

 

 

Dave Shaddix also recently completed a mosaic of a person, which is, as he describes it, "A 20" x 20" mosaic commissioned by a very loving grandmother to commemorate her grandson's senior year of high school and amazing last season!"

 

 

This mosaic is a bit more stylized, but still gives me a great impression of a football player in action.

Muntabur Cathedral

Stefan Johannes Kubin (lord_tarris) is working on building a cathedral, filled with lots of gorgeous mosaics.  Check 'em out!









Aren't they gorgeous?  I especially love that first photo; the colors are so rich.  It will be fun to watch the rest of the cathedral come together as Stefan builds it. 

Sesame Street Triptych

Bruce sent me a link to this cute Sesame Street Mosaic by "Big Daddy" Nelson:



I can think of a number of children who would love to have something like this hanging in their room. 

Giant Christmas Village

There is a currently a LEGO Christmas Village set up at Time Square in Hong Kong.  You can read an article and watch a video describing it in more detail here.  The models were originally designed by Hong Kong LEGO fans, and then built at a size about 20 times larger than the originals.  Bill Toenjes (TooMuchDew) sent me one of the photos, because.... look!  A giant cheese slopes mosaic!   I assume (hopefully correctly) that the design was based off of one of one of mine.  In which case -- how cool is that? 



I noticed this other beautiful snowy/starry mosaic background in the photographs taken by Joey Kwok (Bo-Chi Workshop). 



See Joey's LEGO Village set for lots more photos.

In the video mentioned above, I saw a few more really neat mosaics, too, although I didn't find still photographs of them.  Since my birthday party is about to start, I will leave it to you, intrepid reader, to watch the video and look for them yourself.  ;-)

Castle-y Goodness

Check out the mosaics all over this gorgeous room by Etzel87.  I especially love that center square. 

Sanctuary Overview, by Etzel87

Another gorgeous interior is this Room at Toberg by Benjamin Jakobson (bentoft):

Room at Toberg, by Benjamin Jakobson

The Room at Toberg was an entry for the Colossal Castle Contest at Classic-Castle.com.  You can find the categories and rules here. 

Batman!

Batman seems to be everywhere, these days.  First, here are a few Batman mosaics.  Josh Wedin and Dave Ware made very similar ones; one main difference is that Josh's mosaic has the studs pointing to the right, and Dave's has them pointing up (towards the head).  The changing orientation makes slight differences in how the mosaic turned out.  I notice differences especially in the lettering, and also in the face.

Batman Mosaic, by Josh Wedin



Batman Mosaic by Dave Ware

Batman was also hanging out around BrickCon this year, too.  Here's half a Batman mosaic, hanging out next to the Super Friends Hall of Justice, made by VicLUG's Ryan Willougby:

Hall of Justice, by Ryan Willougby

Over in the Art/Mosaic/Sculpture section, Bruce Lowell won an award for this 3-D Batman mosaic.  The colors and shapes make for quite the brooding ambience. 

The Silent Guardian, by Bruce Lowell

One of the highlights at BrickCon this year was this amazing Bat Cave, by Wayne Hussey and Carlyle Livingston.  It's not really a mosaic (though I see some yellow lines we could pretend are mosaics, if anyone wanted to be picky about it), but -- wow!

Bat Cave, by Carlyle Livingston and Wayne Hussey

And lastly, here is a photo of the new upcoming LEGO set, Arkham Asylum.  Once again, not very mosaicky, but look!  Stained glass windows!  And gargoyles too!  (Though, sadly, not the peeing kind.)

Arkham Asylum -- upcoming set

ToroLUG Follow-Up

Here's the final Hard Rock Cafe mosaic done by ToroLUG, as described in a previous post: