Lego Photo #3: Holiday Edition 2011

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

This was my latest Lego photo endeavour as well as our Christmas photo for the year! I kept it quite simple, placing everything on some cotton batting to try and mimic snow, and back lit it with sunlight to make the star glow as much as possible. I wanted to try doing it on real snow, but that is sadly it is lacking in California! 

Thanks to all of your folks for taking interest in the projects I working on this year and for all your supportive comments and questions. I'm hoping to do even more posts next year so I hope you'll enjoy!

Lego Photo #2 - Curling Edition

I've been working away at top secret Christmas gift projects and so haven't really had much that I can post on here recently. I did however make this little vignette for my Dad's birthday card last month. It's a little montage of me and my dad, and our good friends Paul and Ken all curling together. 

It was pretty fun trying to make little curling rocks - and they do rock in fact! They have little round bases, and so can slide and spin around. The ice part was rather time consuming - placing all the tiny pieces, but I think in the end it turning out fairly realistic. I did some photoshopping on it to give it a more aged appearance which I think fits the picture better. Notice how I made sure I'm not sweeping!! 

Remembrance Day

Lest We Forget
Modeled after the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Ottawa

Woodturning Club Competition

This past weekend the wood turning club I belong to had their annual competition. They put a lot of work into the organization and how it all comes together, making sure that every single piece that gets submitted gets constructed feedback of what is good about the piece and what could be improved. This is all done by two guest judges who examine each piece and critique it and finally award various prizes. There were 98 entries and they got through them all in about 3 hours! I stuck around and listened to what they said about mine. But there was also someone frantically noting down all their comments so at the end we got nice little comment sheets. They even took really nice photos of all our work and printed those on the pages with teh feedback. Luckily, there are several categories as well as skill levels you can enter, so I didn't have to worry about going up against some of the geniuses in the club. They were very encouraging and I thought I'd give it a go and at least get some good pointers for what to improve. 

This was my first ever natural edge bowl. The photo looks about 200 times better than the actual bowl, but I didn't really know how to finish it or a good technique for the inside. The judges were very helpful in describing better ways to get a nice form, finish and some techniques, so I'm going to try another one soon while I still remember. 

This was a lidded box I made about a year ago, and to my surprise it won a second place ribbon in the beginner box category! They still had many suggestions for improvement, so I'll keep working on those things as well.

All in all it was pretty neat to see all the things everyone made, and there were some pretty awesome pieces. And it was really great to get some feedback from people who really know their stuff. 

Happy Halloween

One of Jerome's favourite movies is The Nightmare Before Christmas. So last year I made him this paper rendition of Jack the skeleton. Complete with string mouth. My original vision was to do it out of leather and stitch it all, but white leather is annoyingly hard to find. Someday I will find some though, and he will be made again! 

Happy Halloween!  

Lego Photo #1

Earlier this week I posted a fun photo to our cooking blog of Jerome and I cooking in Lego form. It got quite a few comments and emails from friends and family, so I thought I'd start posting some of the other Lego photos that I have taken in the same sort of series.

As most people who know me can attest, I am a big Lego fan and have collected a fair amount of Lego over the years. Our wedding cake toppers were even Lego people! Earlier this year I was messing with my Lego people and made one that had a moderate resemblance to me which I thought was amusing. I had found a little grassy area near work to eat lunch at and saw a tiny flower one day and thought it would be just the size for a Lego guy! So I lugged my camera and my Lego Laura to work one day and at lunch had a little photo shoot. I'm sure the people in the office building thought I was nuts, but I thought it was really interesting how the scale and juxtaposition of the natural world and the Lego came together. With a little tweaking it came out pretty nicely, and I ended up using it as a card for random notes, like I'm giving the recipient a little flower.

One of the other photos from the shoot which I didn't edit or anything. 

A Whale of a Tale

A few months ago, my bestest friend, found a whale tissue box holder on Etsy that she loved. She sent me the link, and her exact comment was:

"LAURA!! Please please please please please please consider making one of these."

Well, as I was looking for a project, the boxes were super cute and her birthday was imminent, I considered it! However, I wanted to put a bit of my own spin on it. So I decided to make a mini whale tissue box using those tiny pocket packages of  tissues, so that he could live on her desk at work and not take up too much room. This is especially fitting since she's a marine biologist!

I made him out of thin plywood using measurements from a small tissue package. I drew up a little tail and attached it to the box. I left the bottom open to allow easy access to replace the packet. I drill a hole in the top and rounded all the edges to ensure no snags. 

Here is is after I'd put on the first coat of paint. It's the only one I have with a clear scale to show how small he is. The little lego lady is taller than him! 

Here is is complete with his smile and eye and a clear coat on top. Luckily he survived the long mail voyage all the way to Edmonton, and is now enjoying his new home!