ReadyMade: Instructions for everyday life

Miss Modular

In emiko oye's hands, LEGO is anything but kid stuff

by Katherine Sharpe

Photos by emiko oye

In the June/July issue of ReadyMade, we offer a primer on using LEGO bricks for grown-up projects, with a peek at the work of San Francisco-based artist and maker emiko oye ("A Lesson in Legos"). Here, we offer an extended look at oye’s studio and oeuvre, a conversation with the artist about how she got started traveling down the brick road, a list of resources for grown-up LEGO enthusiasts and a call for you to share your own LEGO creations with us.

oye works in her San Francisco apartment, which doubles as a studio. “I’m lucky enough to have a roommate who is also a jeweler,” she says, “so our common room is our jewelry studio. There’s a lot of light and surface area to have multiple projects laid out simultaneously, with a back room for larger equipment and storage.” The bathroom, she says, gets incredible light, making it the perfect place to photograph work during the afternoon. When she’s not working on her business, oye splits her time between her job as an assistant to an established recycling artist at the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts in downtown San Francisco, and volunteering for the Metal Arts Guild, a non-profit arts association.

In the studio, oye’s latest creation comes to life: a LEGO historic neckpiece inspired by Lalique’s ‘Insect Women with Black Swans’ necklace. oye began making art out of LEGO about five years ago. “I’ve always worked with recycled materials, mostly plastics,” she says, “and a fellow artist suggested that I visit the LEGO store, to consider using LEGO components to save time in making my retail line. That was the turning point.” Jewelry made of the plastic bricks struck a chord with friends and strangers alike. It also led to commercial success: by 2006, oye’s jewelry was carried at the SF MoMA museum store (it’s been discontinued, but is now at the Smithsonian Museum stores). oye was impressed by how the LEGO pieces resonated. “Everyone, and I mean everyone, from the bank teller to the grocery line bagger, was responding to this work.”

The idea of making elaborate LEGO jewelry inspired by historic pieces came later, with a call for entries to an interactive jewelry exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, Oregon. The call resulted in “My First Royal Jewels,” a series of LEGO reinterpretations of classic jewelry pieces by European design houses of the early 20th century, like Cartier, Boucheron and Harry Winston. oye’s LEGO take on Cartier’s diamond, platinum and ruby necklace of 1922 is made from repurposed LEGO, rubber cord, and sterling silver.

The “My First Royal Jewels” series plays with notions of wealth and tradition. “My ready-to-wear jewelry is all about using LEGO for fun,” explains oye, while “in ‘My First Royal Jewels,’ I use LEGO as a symbol of value and preciousness. Much like family jewels that are passed down through the generations, there is an invaluable nostalgia and personal history that inherently comes with LEGO.” The collection is meant to make viewers think about what we consider precious today, and why. When creating the designs for her ‘Royal Jewels,’ oye works from reference photos of historical work; above is the 1922 Cartier design that inspired oye’s red-and-white piece, Cartier Blanc.

In working with LEGO, oye uses traditional jewelry tools: a flexible shaft machine ("mostly for drilling,” she says), pliers, jeweler’s saw, wire cutter and polishing machine, among others. “The fashion designer in me relies a lot on my dress form, to work out how shapes are fitting on the body and fine tune the design,” she says. Finally, oye considers her Canon Rebel digital camera a tool as well, because it “documents the process and the finished work, which gives the jewelry a far-reaching life in books, magazines and online.”

This bracelet from oye’s ready-to-wear collection, *e*oware, is made from repurposed LEGO, sterling silver, and rubber cord, in hues inspired by Piet Mondrian. oye has fun with color schemes, bestowing names on each: below, her “Miami” earrings are made from repurposed LEGO, sterling silver, argentium silver earwire and cubic zirconia set in 14-karat gold.

This month, oye’s LEGO jewelry is on display at “Decorative Resurgence” at Rowan University Gallery in Glassboro, New Jersey, through May 24. The artist will also be at the Maker Faire at the San Mateo County Expo Center in San Mateo, California, from May 30 to 31. At Maker Faire, which oye describes as “a mind-blowing two-day DIY expo with something to satisfy the crafter and techie alike,” oye will be showing work at the BAYLUG (Bay Area Lego Users Group) station, including her latest Lalique-inspired necklace creation, “Cygne Noir.” She will also have work at the Metal Arts Guild booth, and be staffing her own booth, “Accessorize With Toys.” Stop by to build jewelry items and small sculptures with oye and fellow jeweler Shana Astrachan, who will be showing off their “endless supply of found materials from thrift stores and S.C.R.A.P.," the San Francisco-based “Scroungers’ Center For Reusable Art Parts.

The “Iced Windows” earrings are made from LEGO, sterling silver and argentium silver earwires. To discuss Lego or ask emiko a question, check out her Reware Style blog. She has a shop on Etsy and a Flickr photostream with plenty more images of Lego bijoux.

LEGO RESOURCES

If you’re interested in trying a Lego project of your own, here are some places to find supplies and information.

Buy LEGO:
The official LEGO store carries full kits and newer designs; the LEGO website’s ’Pick a Brick‘ section is the place to order blocks á la carte. eBay is another valuable resource for used bricks.

Find Support:
Lugnet is a sprawling website dedicated to all things LEGO. Use their interactive map to find a LEGO enthusiast group near you, or check out their ’Everything Lego‘ list, a collection of 500 pertinent links. LEGOfan has a number of resources for LEGO beginners.

Real-world events include the Brickworld conference, to be held in Chicago from June 18-21, 2009, which will feature workshops on topics like how to render a 2-dimensional image as a LEGO mosaic, and how to build realistic architectural elements out of the plastic pieces. Another gathering, BrickFest 2009, takes place this year in Portland, Oregon. In the Bay Area, the Bay Area Lego Users Group, or BAYLUG, holds regular meetings and an annual exhibition of members’ work.

BrickEngineer is a hub for people blending LEGO with technology, including robotics. And Peeron maintains a collection of scanned instructions for old LEGO sets, in case you’ve misplaced the directions to your 1988 Space Futron Hovercraft kit.

Be Inspired:
One of the best-known LEGO artists working today, Nathan Sawaya is known for large LEGO sculptures, usually of non-architectural items. Reently, he made a life-sized cello out of LEGO—and it really plays. The Lego Art pool on Flickr is a place to sift for interesting LEGO projects uploaded by their cretors (and maybe submit your own). Dedicated LEGO-loving Flickr users congregate at BrickBuildr.

A recent area of LEGO innovation is the making of stop-motion films with LEGO. Michel Gondry’s video for the White Stripes’ “Fell In Love With a Girl” is probably the best-known example (YouTube video here). The website Brickfilms is a community dedicated to making movies with LEGO; check out their forums and tutorials.

SHOW US YOUR BRICKS!

Last but not least, we want to see what uses you have been putting your Legos to. Send images or links to katherine [dot] sharpe [at] meredith [dot] com by June 15; we’ll post a round-up on the ReadyMade blog.

Photos, except for Cartier reference shot, by emiko oye