Gallery: Three Words: Lego. Maker. Porn.
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Bruce Lowell is a 27-year-old IT technician by day, master Lego builder by night. His specialty? Mini replicas of everyday objects, many with a DIY theme. While other Legoficionados piece together elaborate -- yawn -- *Star Wars* scenes, Lowell got over that phase long ago and now immortalizes domestic grunts like tape measures. Visit his [site](http://www.brucelowell.com/), follow him on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/bruceywan), and look for his latest creations on [Flickr](http://www.flickr.com/photos/bruceywan/).
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Nothing more inspiring than a blank sheet of paper! "I think a lot of people think of creativity as something different ... but the difference can be in that it's just something simple or mundane. As long as you have your own mark on it, and most of all you enjoy building it, that's what it's all about at the end of the day." Lowell told the [Look at Lego](http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/a-look-at-lego/id479283732) podcast.
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Lowell tweaks scale and context to great effect. For instance, the blue handle on this water cooler is the same brick used as the notebook's wire coil on the previous image.
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The recipe for this "macaroni and cheese" contains just unassembled parts in a gray bin. No big deal, right? But there's an inside joke. Legoheads will catch that the round pieces (part #[3063](http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3063)) are informally called "Macaroni" while the seemingly out-of-place orange triangles (part #[50746](http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Part_50746)) are called "Cheese Wedges."
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Lowell was comissioned by [Adafruit Industries](http://adafruit.com/) to create a diorama depicting their workshop. It features a laser cutter, Kanban bins, and a soldering iron. It's also the first known Lego set depicting a 3-D printer, though not the first [3-D printer made of Legos](http://www.zdnet.com/building-a-3d-milling-robot-with-lego-oh-so-cool-video-7000000675/). A subtle difference, but of major importance, if you care about such things. The Adafruit set awaits your thumbs-up or -down [vote](http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/17491) at Lego's [Cuusoo](http://lego.cuusoo.com/) crowd-sourcing site. Another 8,000 votes and it will be considered for production.
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We're a long way from seeing the Adafruit play set at Toys R Us, but in the meantime, builders can make approximations using Lowell's detailed diagrams.
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By manipulating scale and context, Lowell transforms a couple pizza tiles into the insides of watermelons smashed by this minifig of prop-comedy pioneer Gallagher.
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It's hard for Lego artists to stay away from pop-culture references entirely, but Lowell takes those nods a step further. Notice the reddish-brown bricks in the base of the image and the way he subtly captured the brick pattern from the game in Lego form? The rounded head of the plant uses an innovation called the "[Lowell Sphere](http://www.brucelowell.com/lowell-sphere/)," a design feature he invented that is now widely used in the Lego community. It may not be an innovation on the scale of the Higgs Boson, but at least we can see it!
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Lowell uses bricks the way painters use brush strokes. In this case he contrasts a flat facade with a sculpted mushroom cloud (using the Lowell Sphere), two very different techniques that create a dynamic image when combined.
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Lowell has an enviable garage workshop full of parts organized by color and type to draw from. But he also uses Lego CAD programs to experiment with designs virtually. "Most of my designs are built freeform, but occasionally if I want to mock something up quickly when I’m away from home or if I don’t have enough of a piece in a particular color I’ll use CAD until I can actually build it," he says. "It’s also a great tool for making instructions for future reference or for estimating the amount of parts I’ll need for a given project."
