Fairy Bricks Mosaics

leemcg

Does anyone have good photos of Fairy Bricks mosaics? I'd like to share them with my kid's school to try to get them to choose Fairy Bricks as charity of the term.

Thanks.
Lee

cheshirecat

They're pretty much all on the twitter feed. But finding them is a bit of a mad search.

Kev would have them but he's in Dubai at the moment and the internet is not playing nicely with attachments.

leemcg

Yes, I had dropped Kev a note, and the Dubai delay wasn't helping, hence why I posted here in case anyone had versions on their Flickr etc.

Paperballpark

Bricktastic 2015:


Bricktastic 2016:


STEAM 2016:


Larger versions are available on my Flickr account.

SirKevbags

SirKevbags

SirKevbags

Completed last night in Dubai........

snowhitie

Had seen most of them, but great to see them in one spot, and just want to say again how amazing they are + great that people get to help make them. What happens afterwards though?@SirKevbags are you responsible for getting them all loosened with Brick Separator (I'm just curious)?

SirKevbags

It's Scary Time. Built four times, stripped every night. Big thanks to the builders and especially the strippers!

nexander

Yup, always thank your strippers!

catwrangler

Wow, I knew there was a lot of hard work and dedication involved in putting these together, but I had no idea they had to be stripped and rebuilt every night/day! Incredible work!

cheshirecat

It does depend on the size of the show (and the size of the mosaic). The Halloween one was every day, but the STEAM one above (which was slightly bigger) was only built once over two days. Thankfully there are normally some very nice AFOLs around who'll help strip it down (it's by far the worst part of the process!)

SirKevbags

@cheshirecat The STEAM one this year was 130 plates smaller than the Scary Bricks, (I think!) 

They limitation at STEAM is the number of build tables (4) So no matter how many visitors we have, only a limited number can build are once.

Well should do a really big one........

Calv

^ Better "borrow" some more 32x32 baseplates and black bricks first Kev!

The Scary Bricks mosaic was built 4 times at the NEC. The build started every day at 9am and was completed around 3.30pm each day. It contained 484 plates and 123904 2x2 bricks.  The dedicated team of volunteer strippers took about 3 hours to strip the plates and prepare the mosaic for the next build.

It was a great weekend, and I thoroughly enjoyed the building sessions and showing it off to interested people - there were a lot!  Thanks also go to our dedicated builders who had a good time every day building their contribution.

Salamalex

Feel like I missed a good one. 

SirKevbags

@Calv I've around 800 but they were in the wrong place ;-) 

SirKevbags

Not reported this one. We were not actually at the event but as we like @Salamalex so much we knocked up a little design and loaned her the bricks for a fundraising gig in her school. Only small at 196 plates but a fantastic result. 

Salamalex

It's ace and every member of staff who saw it was amazed by it and how effective it was. As usual the mosaic was one of the most popular elements of the show. Thanks again @SirKevbags

SirKevbags

They say never to work with children or animals........

I had reservations about us combining three children's drawings into a mosaic design but it's turned out pretty well. @leemcg was Master Of Ceremonies today and no doubt slipped into his Bingo Caller past! 

leemcg

Everyone still talking about how amazing the mosaic day was. Cheers Kev

I was absolutely aching all over the next day. Hard work.

msanders

They are all so amazing. I`m not sure whether you`ve written an article on this, but I`d be interested in reading about the design process and sourcing the parts/plates for each mosaic. The images are great as well so who does your image design? 

SirKevbags

Design is very much a team effort and usually involves me (poorly) attempting to express what I think we need to @cheshirecat and @TheBrickLadd who actually posses artistic talent that I do not! I can sense the frustration at times but we usually get there in the end!

Some things are relatively simple such as the Godiva image because the artwork already exists. Things like the Scary Bricks are much more complicated. Bricks and baseplates have been picked up over the years from the usual sources and it's just a case a adding to what we already have when we need say an extra 5000 dark red which happened for Birmingham this year so it was off to Brick Link.

Once a design is completed at an event the plates are stripped and sorted, ready for the next time they are used. Ideally we don't like using the same design again but sometimes logistics dictate that we have to. 

TheBrickLadd

My personal favourite is the Nexo Knight one. I enjoyed turning the knight into @SirKevbags! 

;)

SirKevbags

 ^ Noooooooooooo. That never happened ;-)

Shib

I obviously don't have a T shirt with that on...it definitely never happened....

SirKevbags

^ Exactly. If you do ever see any Fairy/Nexo cross over images their connection is completely incidental, most likely your imagination playing tricks on you. 

SirKevbags

Rather topical if you have been following the snooker. I did meet Ronnie on Saturday but sadly we couldn't get him involved with the building. It's location in the foyer at Alexandra Palace meant it would have been chaos with autograph hunters if he appeared there.

SirKevbags

Well this has made my day. Six year old Victoria and Timothy deciding not to get presents at their birthday party, but to instead asking guests to bring a set they could give to children in hospital who are not quite so fortunate as they are. Inspired doesn't even come close. and anyone mentioning the MegaBlocks set is likely to get a slap. 

SirKevbags

Oh wrong thread. Doesn't matter :-)

Bumblepants

^that Megablok Cat loader though, I thought you had standards! haha. Seriously, though that is awesome.

SirKevbags

@Bumblepants does slap not mean the same in Sofia? ;-)

Bumblepants

SirKevbags said:

@Bumblepants does slap not mean the same in Sofia? ;-)

Ah weird, didn't see that line in your text on my phone. Slap received and deserved.

SirKevbags

catwrangler

This is great - love the colourscheme!

Paperballpark

I'm all in favour of tarts! :D

Paperballpark

At the Lowry Outlet today. FB will be there until next Sunday, so if you're nearby, go along, gaze at the amazing mosaic, and have a go on the tombola!

SirKevbags

We are really tight for photography on this but hopefully we can resolve that over the next week or so.

Mandz27

Sorry short persons view of the Mosaic at Bricklive in Glasgow, The final pieces were still being built as we were leaving, Loved taking part in the build :D

nexander

^Glad you enjoyed it. That was Saturday wasn't it? Thankfully you waited until I was (mostly) out of shot!

Mandz27

@nexander yes that was Saturday! It was awesome. 

Mandz27

Just checked the rest of my pics @nexander you're safe lol, that's the closest I got to having anyone in the frame.

nexander

Mandz27 said:

Just checked the rest of my pics @nexander you're safe lol, that's the closest I got to having anyone in the frame.

Lol. I don't have an issue, just didn't want to ruin the photo!

MorkMan

Can you explain how the stripping works? I'm curious and serious.

Paperballpark

MorkMan said:

Can you explain how the stripping works? I'm curious and serious.

You rope in lots of unwitting mugs enthusiastic volunteers, who then spend the next hour or two removing 2x2 bricks from baseplates with their bare hands until their thumbs hurt and their arms are knackered. :)

snowhitie

^ maybe we should send all our extra seperators to fairy bricks got those poor volunteers ;)

Paperballpark

^ Actually, it's generally quicker to use your thumbs. I can strip a baseplate of 2x2 bricks in less than 20 seconds, although I do have a different technique to most.

snowhitie

^ that's impressive! I'm no good at it, takes me ages whichever method I use.

SirKevbags

The stripping can take a longggggg time depending on who is doing it. If you have 504 plates to be ready for the next day then you need either a massive volume of people or super quick ones like @Paperballpark

Some people just don't find a way of doing it quickly and it takes them an age to strip a single plate. Recently in London there was myself and two other quickies working together. We took down 192 plates in around 50 minutes, the team adjacent did 48 and that was with more people. They were not being lazy, they just don't figure out a method. 

Paperballpark

The only problem with my technique is that I need a large box to catch all the pieces, otherwise they fly all over...

DadsAFOL

The BrickFest Live giant mosaic uses 4x4 plates instead of 2x2 bricks.  They have baseplates with 2x plate strips glued on, so when the 4x4 plates are placed by the kids, there is a 1 plate high channel between the baseplate and the mosaic plates.  To debrick, they use metal rods, slip them in the channels, and pop the plates off.  They can clear the mosaic and reset in about an hour.  

nexander

I'm curious if I'm quick or slow :)  I was certainly getting a knack for it!