Showing posts with label announcements. Show all posts
Showing posts with label announcements. Show all posts
Announcement - Facebook Official
It's official. Rather than running some occasional LEGOry through my personal page, there's now a dedicated Facebook page for Dag's Bricks. As my publicity is increasing it only makes sense to make my art easier to find. After last Friday's fashion show it seems like new mountains are coming. Go follow https://www.facebook.com/dagsbricks/ and enjoy the ride with me!
Announcement - The LEGO Bowtie
If you'll remember, I built a LEGO dress for my wife. But I also outfitted myself to match her with a LEGO built pair of glasses, belt, and bowtie. That bowtie has become a replicable item. With the leftover parts from the dress I was able to create 6 more LEGO bowties. They are available as a limited first run in my Etsy store. Perfect for a wedding party, geeky prom or grad gift.
See how amazing it looks? When I wear it to events I get nothing but smiles and positive reactions!
Bricks Cascade 2016 Wrap Up
Sparring entrants, waterfalls and wearable LEGO were my experiences this year. I have a few sources to thank for pushing my boundaries. Madison for her Wyldstyle cosplay a few years ago and Cole for his social experiment come to mind. Also, the partial pieces of clothing and armor that other builders have shown off over the years.
When I first played around with staggering rows of 2L rubber technic axle connectors on axles I had no idea how large that table scrap would grow. That little thought grew until it became a pair of flip-flops. Then they got fancy. Then they needed something more so I played around with the same concept in a different way. I used a bunch of 2L technic liftarms and connected them with 3L pins. Once I figured out the pattern I could run long strings. These strings then were fastened together and suddenly I was a weaver, creating large swaths of cloth. With a little finagling I was able to convert these large chunks into form fitting pieces. Thus, a dress was born.
"Little Black Dress" was my feature MOC at the convention. My wife was a willing participant in showing it off. I made her a handbag to match and added a few small touches. I then complemented her with my own LEGO built belt, bowtie and glasses. Being already near sighted it would have been nice if the window glass was prescription.
You can see the dress featured on CNET and MSN!
With a choice to enter into either the Art or Technic theme, I chose the latter. The coordinator was very intrigued by a true bio mechanical sculptural build. Didn't even need any motors or battery packs! Runs on protein and water. Taking that cue from Cole, we walked around the public expo together, wowing the crowd and vying for the People's Choice award.
And the competition was pretty stiff. We had to compete with an 8' Multnomah Falls. A Steam Punk build, "Sea Haus" also sported a moving waterfall. These proved to be real crowd pleasers. In the thick of it was Cole with his life size light sabers which he was letting the crowd hold and feel. Who lets the public touch their LEGO!? What a smart guy. To make it even more memorable, Cole and I got into a very friendly grudge match with good natured trash talk and a bit of jovial intimidation. He really is a great guy and if he ended up with the People's Choice award I would have clapped the loudest. Maybe even cheered.
In the end Multnomah Falls cascaded to a People's Choice victory and the Sea Haus punked us on Best of Show. Both fine entries worthy of their trophies.
Who loved us the most? Tweenage girls, followed by most females. Many of the guys were reasonable enough to ask first before snapping photos or feeling the dress. Older folks seemed to really love us as well. Must have been a Ginger Rogers / Fred Astaire vibe. My wife and I both appreciate that the LEGO community has kept their comments positive and non creepy, unlike a few random ones on Twitter and the like. LEGO people really are some of the nicest most respectful people I've met.
You can buy a copy of the same bowtie I wore. Great for a geeky wedding party or prom night!
I won that trophy in Technic for the dress. But also art anyway for my enlarged Dag's Bricks. In a sideways related note, I recreated the classic LEGO wooden sewing machine for the Classic category. I laid a large piece of the "fabric" over it and won a small Fabuland set as runner-up prize for that theme as well. On top of all this I coordinated the Microscale theme and was given a thank you prize for that as well. And did I mention that Bricks Cascade is one of the most generous LEGO conventions there is? In door prizes alone I received about $400 worth of bulk elements this year. Include the 3 large prize sets valued at around $360 and at least $30 for the Fabuland set and I count almost $800 of street value, not including the brick built trophies.
All for one $55 convention ticket. The door prizes alone would have more than covered that.
I should mention too that as a theme coordinator I counted it pure joy to build trophies for others. I built three large and two small trophies and didn't hold back my creative process. Rather I felt that these were some very generous trophies and I was pleased to give them out. I look forward to the next year when I can snag either of those coveted grand trophies.
In the meantime, I've got some fashion designers to talk to. Something about couture with a virus?
Photos at the Oregonian
Bricks Cascade on Flickr
When I first played around with staggering rows of 2L rubber technic axle connectors on axles I had no idea how large that table scrap would grow. That little thought grew until it became a pair of flip-flops. Then they got fancy. Then they needed something more so I played around with the same concept in a different way. I used a bunch of 2L technic liftarms and connected them with 3L pins. Once I figured out the pattern I could run long strings. These strings then were fastened together and suddenly I was a weaver, creating large swaths of cloth. With a little finagling I was able to convert these large chunks into form fitting pieces. Thus, a dress was born.
"Little Black Dress" was my feature MOC at the convention. My wife was a willing participant in showing it off. I made her a handbag to match and added a few small touches. I then complemented her with my own LEGO built belt, bowtie and glasses. Being already near sighted it would have been nice if the window glass was prescription.You can see the dress featured on CNET and MSN!
With a choice to enter into either the Art or Technic theme, I chose the latter. The coordinator was very intrigued by a true bio mechanical sculptural build. Didn't even need any motors or battery packs! Runs on protein and water. Taking that cue from Cole, we walked around the public expo together, wowing the crowd and vying for the People's Choice award.
And the competition was pretty stiff. We had to compete with an 8' Multnomah Falls. A Steam Punk build, "Sea Haus" also sported a moving waterfall. These proved to be real crowd pleasers. In the thick of it was Cole with his life size light sabers which he was letting the crowd hold and feel. Who lets the public touch their LEGO!? What a smart guy. To make it even more memorable, Cole and I got into a very friendly grudge match with good natured trash talk and a bit of jovial intimidation. He really is a great guy and if he ended up with the People's Choice award I would have clapped the loudest. Maybe even cheered.
In the end Multnomah Falls cascaded to a People's Choice victory and the Sea Haus punked us on Best of Show. Both fine entries worthy of their trophies.
 |
| Courtesy the Oregonian |
 |
| Courtesy the Oregonian |
Who loved us the most? Tweenage girls, followed by most females. Many of the guys were reasonable enough to ask first before snapping photos or feeling the dress. Older folks seemed to really love us as well. Must have been a Ginger Rogers / Fred Astaire vibe. My wife and I both appreciate that the LEGO community has kept their comments positive and non creepy, unlike a few random ones on Twitter and the like. LEGO people really are some of the nicest most respectful people I've met.
You can buy a copy of the same bowtie I wore. Great for a geeky wedding party or prom night!
I won that trophy in Technic for the dress. But also art anyway for my enlarged Dag's Bricks. In a sideways related note, I recreated the classic LEGO wooden sewing machine for the Classic category. I laid a large piece of the "fabric" over it and won a small Fabuland set as runner-up prize for that theme as well. On top of all this I coordinated the Microscale theme and was given a thank you prize for that as well. And did I mention that Bricks Cascade is one of the most generous LEGO conventions there is? In door prizes alone I received about $400 worth of bulk elements this year. Include the 3 large prize sets valued at around $360 and at least $30 for the Fabuland set and I count almost $800 of street value, not including the brick built trophies.
All for one $55 convention ticket. The door prizes alone would have more than covered that.
I should mention too that as a theme coordinator I counted it pure joy to build trophies for others. I built three large and two small trophies and didn't hold back my creative process. Rather I felt that these were some very generous trophies and I was pleased to give them out. I look forward to the next year when I can snag either of those coveted grand trophies.
In the meantime, I've got some fashion designers to talk to. Something about couture with a virus?
Photos at the Oregonian
Bricks Cascade on Flickr
LEGO Celebrity
Friday night I had an amazing opportunity. My favorite business guru Ramit Sethi was in town and invited his Portland students and subscribers to hang out with his team for happy hour. I have been following Ramit for at least a year and am very impressed with the content he puts out. He has expanded my thinking on business and I couldn't miss an opportunity to meet him.
Think quick, how many people might be there? 50? 100? How could I distinguish myself from the crowd and make an impression? LEGO Ramit! About an hour before leaving I whipped together a Miniland scale model of Ramit to present to him when I had the opportunity to shake his hand.
At some point I did have the opportunity to meet him as he was working the room to greet everyone. He's just as genuine and chill as he is on the internet. We talked for a couple of minutes about why I was there and what I do when I presented him my thank you gift for all the great content he and his team put together. While I cobbled a nice outfit together based off of a couple of web images, the crazy thing is that it matched what Ramit was wearing that night, right down to the gold bracelet. That was a last minute addition before I left the house, after I took the photo below.
Ramit told me he hates LEGO. Why? Because as an Indian child his parents were always buying him engineering type toys and he was never big on puzzles and the like. When I read about the amount of time and energy that have gone into creating his courses, I don't believe that. Maybe he just doesn't like physical puzzles. But much like his polished emails and courses, he appreciated the LEGO model I presented him because it shows what can be done with all those fiddly bits.
The food was great, the drinks were perfect and the social equity Ramit invested in was astronomical. I have always intended to join one of his courses as soon as I am able; now there is no hesitation that I will do so. Thanks Ramit for a great evening!
Think quick, how many people might be there? 50? 100? How could I distinguish myself from the crowd and make an impression? LEGO Ramit! About an hour before leaving I whipped together a Miniland scale model of Ramit to present to him when I had the opportunity to shake his hand.
At some point I did have the opportunity to meet him as he was working the room to greet everyone. He's just as genuine and chill as he is on the internet. We talked for a couple of minutes about why I was there and what I do when I presented him my thank you gift for all the great content he and his team put together. While I cobbled a nice outfit together based off of a couple of web images, the crazy thing is that it matched what Ramit was wearing that night, right down to the gold bracelet. That was a last minute addition before I left the house, after I took the photo below.
Ramit told me he hates LEGO. Why? Because as an Indian child his parents were always buying him engineering type toys and he was never big on puzzles and the like. When I read about the amount of time and energy that have gone into creating his courses, I don't believe that. Maybe he just doesn't like physical puzzles. But much like his polished emails and courses, he appreciated the LEGO model I presented him because it shows what can be done with all those fiddly bits.
The food was great, the drinks were perfect and the social equity Ramit invested in was astronomical. I have always intended to join one of his courses as soon as I am able; now there is no hesitation that I will do so. Thanks Ramit for a great evening!
Announcement - LEGO Camps!
Announcement! Mondays are now announcement days. That is all.
Oh, no wait. There was something else. Ah! Remember last week when I mentioned my 42lb FREE LEGO haul? I had started planning to do an after school LEGO club at my kids' school. I started talking it up everywhere I went. A lady who works at the organization where I get my LEGO Finds from is a fellow AFOL. Lo and behold she used to teach LEGO classes. I was mentioning the need to get some used brick for the kids to use. She suggested that she had a lot of old LEGO sitting in her shed that I could HAVE for my classes. Cool, thanks!
Well she brought it in the next week. It was a huge tote plus another half size tote both filled. It weighed in at 42lbs. I then proceeded to go through and see what was in there and sort for my classes. It was full of Pirates and Castle and Classic Space. Sorry, I should have taken some pics but I didn't. I set all the MegaBlock and other clones, army men and marbles aside. Weigh out minus the bins was 32lb of pure Danish ABS.
With her permission I assembled a few of the old sets to sell. The money from these sales will go towards further funding my after school LEGO classes. You can find these sets in my Bricklink and BrickOwl stores.
But this story takes another step. The after school class is a means to create and hone some curriculum that I can use to teach LEGO Camps over Spring and Summer Breaks. If you are in the Portland OR area or know someone who is, consider signing your kids (or their kids) up for my camps!
Oh, no wait. There was something else. Ah! Remember last week when I mentioned my 42lb FREE LEGO haul? I had started planning to do an after school LEGO club at my kids' school. I started talking it up everywhere I went. A lady who works at the organization where I get my LEGO Finds from is a fellow AFOL. Lo and behold she used to teach LEGO classes. I was mentioning the need to get some used brick for the kids to use. She suggested that she had a lot of old LEGO sitting in her shed that I could HAVE for my classes. Cool, thanks!
Well she brought it in the next week. It was a huge tote plus another half size tote both filled. It weighed in at 42lbs. I then proceeded to go through and see what was in there and sort for my classes. It was full of Pirates and Castle and Classic Space. Sorry, I should have taken some pics but I didn't. I set all the MegaBlock and other clones, army men and marbles aside. Weigh out minus the bins was 32lb of pure Danish ABS.
With her permission I assembled a few of the old sets to sell. The money from these sales will go towards further funding my after school LEGO classes. You can find these sets in my Bricklink and BrickOwl stores.
But this story takes another step. The after school class is a means to create and hone some curriculum that I can use to teach LEGO Camps over Spring and Summer Breaks. If you are in the Portland OR area or know someone who is, consider signing your kids (or their kids) up for my camps!
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