I’m back home from my first visit to Brickworld, and I’m disappointed. Not because the LEGO creations weren’t good, because they were amazing. But rather, because I’ll have to wait a whole year to go back as a registered attendee. Next year, I plan to be there for the entire event and will bring some of my sculptures and mosaics to display. The up side is that it gives me a whole year to build new items to bring.

As promised, here are some pictures from Brickworld 2008.

There were large scale train setups by several different LEGO Train Clubs. These layouts had so much detail packed into a small area that you could keep coming back to the same display and find interesting things you missed.

Full article includes more pictures… READ FULL ARTICLE »

Brickworld is this weekend in Wheeling, IL (a suburb of Chicago). I will be attending and will do a write up with pictures next week. [Updated 06/24/2008: Just posted Brickworld 2008 Review (with pictures)]

This will be the first national LEGO event I have ever visited. This year I will be visiting the public exhibition only, since I will have my whole family along. In the future, I may attend as a registered participant, which includes classes, building sessions, and many other activities.

Today was the day of the Discovery Days Workshop at the Central Wisconsin Children’s Museum. I had 10 kids and their parents join me today to build a LEGO Picture Frame. As promised, I took pictures of the event and several of the completed projects.

Here is a picture of the build in progress.

I decided to have everyone work on the floor instead of at tables, since I knew the bricks would fall all over the floor anyway. I airbrushed the faces on the picture above because I didn’t ask for permission to post pictures.

See below for more pictures! READ FULL ARTICLE »

As an adult fan of LEGO, I’ve been pretty successful in getting my own kids interested in building with my favorite toys.  Not just building sets using the directions they come with, but using creativity to build things no one else has ever built before.  I’ve decided I want to share this hobby with other kids whenever I get a chance, and today my first opportunity came along to do just that, and you can help too!

The Central Wisconsin Children’s Museum is having Discovery Days workshops this June and I will lead a class to help kids create their own small mosaics. Each participant will have a chance to fill a 10 inch base plate with bricks and special elements to create a unique design all their own, that they will get to keep.  I will provide templates of letters in different sizes and many small pictures designs to use as a starting point for the creative process.

I will personally donate bricks for this class, but if anyone else can help out with bricks or base plates they will go to a wonderful cause.  If you are interested in donating, please email me and I will provide my mailing address.  I will post pictures of the event here, so you’ll have a chance to see what your donated bricks become. Any extra items I receive I will save for future opportunities similar to this one.  As an example, I will also be doing a creative building activity with the Cub Scouts at a nearby elementary school.

Also, you’ve probably noticed there are quite a few advertising links found on this website.  100% of money earned from these advertisements will be used to fund workshops and classes like the one above for children.  So if you can’t help out with a donation of bricks, you can still help by using one of these advertising links to make a purchase.  Thank you!

Today I experienced some of the most impressive LEGO brick creations I’ve ever seen.  My kids, Dad, and I made a visit to the Fox Cities Children’s Museum in Appleton, Wisconsin. In addition to a wonderful set of permanent attractions which my kids throughly enjoyed, was a special exhibit by Nathan Sawaya called The Art of the Brick.

I had been on Nathan’s Website, so I was already familiar with his work.  However, the website images don’t begin to do justice to his amazing creations.  Seeing this collection of sculptures and mosaics in person is somthing any true LEGO fan should not pass up given the opportunity.  This exhibit is traveling to many locations throughout the country spending 2-3 months at each location.  It is only in Appleton for 2 more weeks, so if you live in Wisconsin, your window of opportunity is closing quickly.

Below is a picture I took of my favorite piece, titled Reflection.

I was very impressed with how Nathan captured the ever changing contour of the human forms.  His exhibit featured many human bodies and large hands.  Below are three human form sculptures titled simply Yellow, Red, and Blue. READ FULL ARTICLE »