Digging through some old pictures, found this- a spice rack I made (with a fair amount of help from my dad) for a now-ex girlfriend, back in about 2004. there are hooks underneath for the hanging and drying of herbs, and the doors have shelves on the inside, as well as the main shelf attached to the back. the shelves are even adjustable to accommodate bottles of varying heights.

Recently, there was a Lego Brick Factor challenge near my home, where the company holds an open contest to see who the new “master builder” for an opening discovery center will be. I was able to participate, and was one of 40 people out of 171 to make it to the 2nd round. sadly, I didn’t make it to the final 12, but I’m hoping there will be more opportunities for assistant builders when the center gets closer to opening in May.  In the weeks leading up to the event, however, I was encouraged to practice my building skills, so I set myself some challenges. I tested myself to see if I could build a sphere (at least half of one, with the amount of bricks I had) a lifesize human hand, and an original word tower design. (“Play well” is what the term Lego originated from in Danish)

Found some more pictures of lego sculptures that I made when I was about 15 or 16, I think.  Wish I’d been a better photographer back then! The drawings are copies I made from Nintendo Power Magazine, which turned out to be a great way to practice different styles of art, and had a lot to do with all the drawing and art I did in high school. The lego models were another sort of challenge, seeing how detailed I could get in 3-d when I only had 2-d models to work with (this was before the Nintendo 64 came out, of course!) There were more, I had lego versions of the Michael Keaton movie Batmobile, Samus from Metroid, Solar Jetman, even the vehicle from Blaster Master (aka “S.O.P.H.I.A.”).

Thanks! I love the challenge of seeing how detailed I can make things with just the duck tape and foam, a lot of it I make just to see if I can follow an idea through!  Like, anything, I suppose, you get better with practice- keep at it, and don’t let yourself settle if you’re not happy with the results!

So… I built myself some actual portals out of duck tape, mylar, and EL wire to be in pictures with “Cubie”.  The place I work has a few spots that are reminiscent of the Aperture Science Enrichment Center, so I’ve been taking liberties there late at night. One of those things I wanted to make, just to see if I could.  Pretty happy with the way they turned out! I may tinker with the images to swap the reflections in the portals themselves, but I think they look ok without!

Here’s another custom order i did for a friend who wanted to dress as Harley Quinn for Halloween. Not quite combat-worthy, it wouldn’t take much of a beating, sadly. but I think it looks great with her costume, and she was really happy with it!

Boffer spellbook I built to hold throwable spell balls while larping. it’s all foam and duck tape, with a single cardboard “page” you can write on to personalize or make your own spells. the page is held shut by velcro so the balls don’t fall out. Can be used to deflect spells and weapons like a shield, or for bashing, if your rules allow it.

In high school, I found a niche as an artist.  I started copying some of the artwork from Nintendo Power magazine, and wound up spending a couple of years at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.  These are some pictures I drew both for schoolwork, and for myself.  I like pencil because it’s easy to put down and come back to, the few paintings I tried just left me frustrated with the medium.  For each of these pictures, I tried to make something original within a certain genre: pirates, space fiction, D&D, etc. I’m fairly proud of both the “Octobear” and the 3-tentacled aliens.

Ahh, getting back to bragging now. Here are pics of the trailer I bought and rebuilt a couple of years ago. Got it off craigslist for about $150, tore off all the wood and wiring, cleaned up and repainted the metal frame, then redesigned it to be able to carry my cousin’s Big Ruckus Scooter.  I extended the bed over the tongue, and bolted on a lockable toolbox to be able to keep ratchets and bungees with it.  the tailgate doubles as a loading ramp, and it’s just small enough that I can drag it out from the backyard and attach it to the car myself.  Anything bigger, and I’d be afraid of putting too much wear on my Honda Element!

now have their own dedicated blog. just added a new one as an animated GIF under “Companion Cube About Town” http://www.tumblr.com/blog/companioncubes