Happy Belated President’s Day!

Happy belated President’s Day! I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend, descending upon the local mall or car dealership in a furious shopping attack picking up sale after President’s Day sale. Or in our case realizing that this is one of the few days the Post Office shuts its doors and lets it’s workers take a well deserved day off. Which would not have mattered if we didn’t have packages to ship out…oops. Or in the case of our local school system, I’m sure the students were lamenting the fact that they had to go to school on a holiday, in need of a break before the stress of mid-terms rears it’s ugly head. President’s Day sadly is usually an oft forgotten holiday exploited by car dealerships and department stores to hawk last minute sales in the no-mans land retail landscape between Christmas and when it is actually warm enough to wear the Spring/Summer Fashions that stores have had on display since January.

But I think President’s Day is more important than sales or a day off or no mail. It is a time to celebrate the accomplishment of all our Presidents, and especially two of our most important ones- George Washington and Abraham Lincoln- whose birthdays both coincidentally fall during the month of February. It is a celebration of the birthday of George Washington who one of our founders and our first President. He set the example for all the presidents to follow him with his grace, humility, leadership, and devotion to the Republic. I honestly do not think any other man could have led our nascent country and put it on a path of greatness the way that he did. It is a celebration of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln who led our country during it’s most tumultuous and divided time in our history and we came out the other side better and stronger. President’s day is not only a time to celebrate and honor not only these two great men but also all the men who have made it to our nation’s highest office. It is also a time to reflect on our nation’s history, both the good moments and the bad, and learn from them as we look to our future as a country and who could be our future president as we enter the middle of primary season. Happy Birthday George! Happy Birthday Abe! Happy Birthday America! (ok so it’s not really the nation’s birthday…that’s July 4th…but can President’s Day be USA’s bday in February like there is Christmas in August? I think so )

Oh before I go…I leave you with some patriotic LEGO goodies! Enjoy!

This is a LEGO sculpture of Mount Rushmore, which features four of the USA's greatest Presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. It was made by LEGO artist Nathan Sawaya. Please chekc out more at his website www.brickartist.com.

This is a LEGO bust of George Washington at LEGOland!

The President's Home! The White House is part of the LEGO Architecture series.

LEGO Mosaic of our 44th and sitting President Barack Obama. It was done by Sean Kenney and represents his official portrait. Please check out his website at www.seankenney.com for more awesome work!

Wooden Flavored LEGO —Purists need not read.

Well I got to cleaning out one of my LEGO rooms to make room for a new polishing unit and came across a bunch of my old WoodStitches. Way back when, when I had just come up with idea of engraving on LEGO bricks to make badges and keyrings and names on mini-figs, I was also interested in wood veneering and tiling patterns. Still am for that matter, but very little time to pursue them. Anyway, I came up with the concept of covering LEGO bricks and later tiles with real wood veneer. A modular kind of  parquetry, one in which you could rebuild it again and again. Because LEGO is really strong and dimensionally stable, it actually made an excellent substrate for veneer. So I embarked on making all kinds of bricks covered with veneer. Figuring out the right kind of glue and cutting them out were of course the main problems, but to me they looked so darn good that I persevered and came up with a reasonable, if time consuming  process. And once put together and coated with a few coats of urethane, they made a very durable item–durable enough for coasters,  table tops and even floors.

I thought that photo mosaics out of them would be very unique and could not help but being good looking also. After all hardwoods are some of the prettiest materials that God ever created. I was always a fan of marquetry also. I played around also with stitching patterns, rug patterns , tiling patterns, etc. Had no idea there were so many stitching patterns in the world. I remember some of the African ones were very elegant. But wanted to do one pretty good sized mosaic, and finally created enough 1×1 bricks with enough of a variety of values and colors to give it a go. Since Kjeld was going to be at BrickFest that year, I decided to do a portrait of him –someone the AFOLs could identify.

So I grabbed one of the few pictures of him I could find and analyzed it value wise –took all my various woods and analyzed them from light to dark in similar color temperature and then started matching them up and numbering them . Some woods even though the correct values were too green or cool and could not use them. I then did like most mosaic makers do and “stitched” by number. If one was using traditional parquetry techniques and actually gluing them, it would have been a real pain. After all there were over 3000 of them for this fairly small picture. And if you decided one did not look good, with WoodStitches you simply had to take it apart and put in a different one. Actually a lot of fun, once the bricks were made and the pattern laid out. And you could also play with the grain direction to get some textural variations. It came out pretty darn well, and I was proud of my new craft form. I could not find any equivalent technique out there in the world. At BrickFest my new and original concept did not go over very well however because I was modifying the “holy” brick and it was not considered LEGO. Lot of purist back in those days and this was about as impure as one could get-lol. Well anyway, I thought it looked almost great—and did get Kjeld to autograph it as can be seen in this picture.

href=”http://brickengraver.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/kjeld-small.jpg”>Wooden Flavored LEGO

The technique would make a killer bar, coffee table, foyer floor, or mosaic backdrop for a tavern. Or a photomosaic. Would look good in any room. Great for making borders, all kinds of things. Problem of course was the expense. Nothing really inexpensive about the bricks and the amount of labor was pretty high.

Wondering What to Get Your Teachers as a Thank-You Gift? How about their very own LEGO MOC!

That’s right. What could be a more memorable, unique, and thoughtful gift than creating a scene that epitomizes your academic journey together than a finely-built LEGO vignette? With meticulous detail, adorable mini-figures for the teachers and an engraved tile to label the MOC. I honestly couldn’t think of a better present. Or a better way to secure great future job recommendations. : P Neither could Nannan Zhang (the sincere thank-you present part…not the cynical ploy for a recommendation part). He created the below MOC as a thank you present for his anatomy professors at the UTSW Medical School. We helped out by engraving a 1×8 black tile with “UTSW Anatomists” in white text. We always love seeing our engraved pieces in MOCs, especially one as fun and creative as this one. I especially love the very cool lamps and the cute little gray stools. As Tommy would say…it’s world class. Enjoy the below pictures and to check out more from Nannan Zhang please visit his flickr page at Nannan Z. , contributing to the Brothers Brick blog, and running Creations for Charity. Thanks to Nannan for letting us use the photos!

UTSW Anatomists MOC

UTSW Anatomists MOC

UTSW Anatomists MOC

UTSW Anatomists MOC

A Vote for Stephen Colbert is a Vote for LEGOs!!!!

One of Tommy’s New Years Resolutions this year was to stay out of politics. I know I know this may seem COMPLETELY untenable during an Election Year but goodness is he trying (and is doing better than my New Years Resolutions of blogging more and going to the gym…whoops…). Tommy’s idea behind avoiding politics is mainly to avoid conflict and the utter insanity that is campaign season with the plethora of inane speeches and ads. Also, arguments with his daughter. I was a Political Science major so I am sort of a political junkie, which means I devour politics like it’s candy (sometimes it’s the cardboard flavor out of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans…but not everything in life can be scrumptious chocolate). While this means we listen to more ESPN radio as opposed to NPR in the car (seriously…those are the only two stations we listen to in the car)…one thing that Dad and I can agree on this Election Year is watching the Colbert Report.  He doesn’t count this as politics because it is way too hilarious a program to stop watching. Another thing we can agree on…we are so excited that Colbert is running for the President of the United States of South Carolina. Sorry, excuse me, EXPLORING a POSSIBLE run for the President of the United States of South Carolina. All I know is that Tommy is going to be one of the 13% who will write in Stephen Colbert as an independent (according to PPP Polling that is how much support he would garner if he ran as an independent).

But does Stephen Colbert’s potential run for President have to do with LEGOs? Suprisingly… alot! Colbert first came out in support of LEGOs back in 2008 when he had Nathan Sawaya, the amazing BrickArtist on his show as a guest. Nathan even made a life-sized Stephen Colbert out of LEGOs!!! Hmm…maybe we have found Colbert’s running mate…LEGO Stephen! A VP focused on fun, family, building, toys, and education. I like it. Below are links to Nathan’s website and to the clip of his appearance on the Colbert Report.

Nathan Sawaya at the Colbert Report!

http://www.brickartist.com/large-sculptures/stephen-colbert.html

Okay, okay…so that was four years ago…the last time Colbert tried to run for President…but what has he done for LEGOs since then? Well this year he opened up for FIRST President John Dudas for the introductory video shown at the First Robotics Competition (FRC) across the country. It is great, especially when he greets the students as “future techno overlords”…smart man A candidate who supports science education in our schools…now that’s someone I can get behind! Below is the link to the entire video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBUkr06taPw&

What is Stephen Colbert’s goal for running for President of the United States of South Carolina? Or starting a SuperPAC (Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow) and ceding leadership to Jon Stewart (who is he is definitely NOT coordinating with…at all…even though they keep appearing on each’s others shows…but apparently that’s still legal…). Colbert is the only one who really knows. But this extended political practical joke has done something absolutely brilliant…behind the antics and the jokes and the ridiculously hilarious SuperPAC ads (one accuses Mitt Romney of being a serial killer…because corporations are people my friend…and if you dismantle them it’s like killing them…really watch the clip…there’s a link below…I can’t do it justice). It has exposed the corruption and the undue influence of money in politics that is perpetrated by candidates on both sides of the aisle. This is seemingly legal thanks in no small part to the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that declared that corporations are people and money=speech. So the more money you have the more speech you have…even if you are “not” coordinating with your SuperPAC. So if you are a citizen of South Carolina and haven’t yet voted in the primary today…vote for Herman Cain…because a vote for Herman Cain is a vote for Stephen Colbert (Colbert couldn’t get on the ballot but Cain couldn’t get off even though he has already dropped out of the race…so they basically swapped bodies for SC…ingenious huh?). Whether you vote for Colbert for fun, for LEGOs or to show the other candidates that we deserve a better slate to pick from if we would rather pick a late-night comedian than any of the rest of them, or as tongue-in-cheek protest against the prevalence of money in politics…please vote. Because voting is one of the most important rights we have as an American citizen. And that’s the Word.

For more info on Colbert’s Presidential Run check out the links below! Be sure to check out the Super PAC ads…they’re going to be the funniest political ads you’re likely to see all election season!

The Definitely Not Coordinating with Stephen Colbert SuperPAC: Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow

NY Times Magazine Article: How Many Stephen Colbert’s Are There?

NPR Report– Stephen Colbert Wants You to Know: That’s Definitely Not His SuperPAC

 

Roll Tide!!!

As a diehard NC State and Wake Forest fan I’m not really much of an SEC football fan…but I did watch the BCS National Championship game on Monday night (I’m too much of a football fan not to)…and I have to say that was one of the best defensive performances I have ever seen. I had to root for Alabama, because 1.) I always root for the underdog (even though in most every way there is no real underdog in this situation since both teams are phenomenal); 2.) I’m a sucker for a good story of redemption; 3.) The field goal kicker for Alabama, Shelley is from Raleigh, NC and I always have to support a fellow Raleigh native and 4.) I hate LSU on principle. Congratulations to ‘Bama for SHUTTING OUT LSU, not letting go across the 50 yard line until the 4TH QUARTER, and believing in your Field Goal kicker to get the job done. ROLL TIDE!!!

What better way to immortalize ultimate success than in ABS Plastic? Which is so timely because the inaugural BrickFair-AL convention is this weekend in Birmingham! If y’all are in the area y’all should definitely check it out. I wish I could be there but unfortunately I have to work…boo. But, I will have some swag available to purchase with vendor Victor Fernandez including some fun figs, fig-tees, and Alabama-LSU bricks. Below are some pictures…Enjoy!!!

Roll Tide!!!! Congrats on SHUTTING OUT LSU!!!!

BrickFair 2012 Fig and Fig-Tee

Roll Tide!!!! The score and date is engraved on a 2x4x3 red brick. Also included are some mini-figs for BrickFair 2012 to commemorate BrickFair-AL.

Close Up of Bricks with Fig

Congrats Alabama!

Close Up of Engraved Brick and BrickFair 2012 Fig-Tee

Alabama: 21 LSU: ZERO