Winter Village: Dress Shop

[blackpyre]

Here is my entry for the Expand the Winter Village II contest. I've created a dress shop. I borrowed a number of designs from some of the other winter village sets. Namely the wreath at the top and the chimney. I did this mainly to give it a bit of cohesion with the other winter village sets. I also did my best to have that mixture of timelessness that many of the other sets showcase. Hopefully I've done this in my selections. Enjoy!

The dress shop is a busy place with a customer leaving with a neatly wrapped dress, a newly married couple getting their pictures taken beneath an arch, a man shoveling snow and an ice sculptor carving a statue of a man.

The interior of the dress shop. The first floor is for showcasing dresses and the second floor is where the dress lady spins her thread.

Here's a close-up on the spinning wheel on the second floor. I chose a spinning wheel since it evoked, in my opinion, a sort of old-world rustic feel. There's also a small basket with yellow thread and a simple chair for her to work from.

A bride and groom are getting married and commemorating the moment under a festively decorated arch. To fit the old-timey feel, I built an old fashioned camera complete with drape cloth over the photographer.

Close-up on the Ice Sculptor, Ice Statue, Lamp Post and Snow Shoveler. Don't forget the little white cat that almost blends into the snow.

Here's the folder on flickr with the rest of the photos, including close-ups on some of the elements.

[Laura Beinbrech]

I really like thise MOC! The detail is great, particularly the vintage camera!

...The bride looks like she might be a bit cold wearing that sleeveless dress, though.

[soundwave_sw]

Very nice little shop Blackpyre! It is very detailed and I like the color scheme. The camera is well done.

good luck in the contest!

[blackpyre]

I really like thise MOC! The detail is great, particularly the vintage camera!

...The bride looks like she might be a bit cold wearing that sleeveless dress, though.

Thanks,

I spent several days beating my head trying to figure out how to make that camera look just right. Needless to say, I was extremely satisfies with the final result. It almost didn't make it in the set.

As for the dress, I let my wife select just the right minifigures. She tells me brides often find themselves cold no matter what dress they get married in. Plus, You're not supposed to mess with the perfect dress especially when it comes to taking pictures. ;)

I just tell myself they just arrived in town. Or maybe they're doing a photo shoot for the Dress Shop's catalog.

Thanks for the comment! :D

Will

Very nice little shop Blackpyre! It is very detailed and I like the color scheme. The camera is well done.

good luck in the contest!

Thanks,

In order to get all the color right I ended up using lots of 1x1 bricks. I think I might have blown the piece count out of the water just to get things like the flowers on the side of the building to work and all the clear and blue lights.

Still, it really challenged my skills when it came to fine detail work.

Will

[Vindicare]

Not bad. I like the building, not too sure about the color(s) though. I do like the shape of the building a lot. Nice interior too, that spinning wheel is great! You have a lot of good details, the camera is awesome. The 1x1 rounds over the arch though, should be multicolored, a la Christmas lights.

Edited December 19, 2011 by Legocrazy81

[lord garmadon]

megacool!)))))enjoy Ice Statue ! very funny

[lightningtiger]

Excellent entry 'blackpyre', it has that village/country craft feel to it.....great work and Brick On in the snow !

[blackpyre]

Thanks all,

The 1x1 round plates on the arch were chosen for two reasons. First, I really like the colors and Second, I really don't have to many other colors at present. ;)

And that spinning wheel was created only when I accidently stumbled across a very interesting piecein a grab bag I picked up at the LEGO store. Didn't even know the piece exsisted until early this month.

I did my best to keep the feel of the Winter Village theme as true to the official sets as possible. This included the tall roof at the very top while filling the set with objects from a time gone by.

As for the ice sculpture, I wish the clear elements were easier to take a picture of. Mainly because you always feel like you miss something. I just like the callenge of trying to use very few types of pieces (since there is not that many elements in trans-clear) to look like something easily recognizable.

I think I was originally debating between the sculpture and possibly doing snow angels. Problem is I couldn't figure out how to make the right shapes with the pieces I have on hand. I think it came down to my preference for simple designs that look more complicated than they really are rather than complicated designs for a simple effect.

Take for instance the holly hanging on the building. It's nothing more than cherries wrapped around a small leaf, but it has a very natural shape and complexity that goe against a blocky look.

I think that's the type of thing that won me with the official sets. Take for instance the Jack-in-the-box from the Winter Toy Shop. I think that small creation alone forced me to make some very different approaches in this contest. To which ends, I'm very grateful. :)

Will

[TheLegoDr]

Very clever build. I also really like the vintage camera. The interior works well.

Good luck win the contest.

[Si-MOCs]

Great colour scheme.

and that old timey camera is fantastic - great use of the cape!

[SilentMode]

Well done on this set, I particularly like the white and blue combination in the photography area, and your interpretation of a spinning wheel on the first floor of the building. And it seems quite a few of us were inspired to make ice sculptures!

[blackpyre]

I have to thank my wife for the coloring. She had stock piled a nice selection of these particular colors for a project she decided not to persue. So I had a rather nice selection to work with.

The spinning wheel took some time. I studied a variety of pics of spinning wheels trying to boil them down to their base elements. Once the issue of mounting the wheel was out of the way I then wanted an angled table, three legs, and a needle. Oh, and if there was room a pedal. Fortunately it all worked out and it only took weeks of lost sleep to come up with. Actually, I had plans for a spinning wheel for a Castle type setting long before this contest popped up. I'm just lucky the contest gave me a reason to seriously try it out. :)

And I have no idea why there were a good number of ice sculptures in this contest. I think we were just trying to find something classy that LEGO had not already done. What can I say, "Great minds build alike." :D

As for the cloth, well that came about by one of the clever uses my wife used one for. I believe we put up a MOC thread called something like "Elven Tree Shrine" in the Historical section. When she was helped me with decorating the interior she used one as a blanket and another as something that filled up a treasure chest. Since then, I've been looking for any opportunity to use a cloak in a non-cloak type situartion. I'm glad it happened in this contest. :)

Will

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Beautiful winter village!

Great details in that shop ...but the ice sculpture is the thing I like the most!

Very imposing idea!

[icy brick]

It looks old,rusty and a potential winner!

Maybe there is one thing that could have been better it could have been bigger.

The size does matter...

Anyhow nice work blackpyre!

[blackpyre]

As I said before, I'm glad the sculpture turned up in the photos as good as they did.

And that old musty feel didn't come easy. I had to hand build all the moth balls. ;)

I'm glad that you said you'd like it bigger. Means I'm doing something right for people to crave more of it. :)

Hopefully I can plan for larger MOCs in the future. This time around I was a bit crunched for time with the holidays, a LUG Showcase display in January to work on with my wife, and trying to sort through a massive haul of grab bags at the LEGO store. Plus, we had part of a train display to take down from a train show our LUG was participating in.

All in all, I wish I had a bit more time to work on the dress shop. I think my original idea was at least twice the size but had to cut things down if I was going to get it done in time. *sigh*

Will

[Ecclesiastes]

Excellent work, the old camera is an awesome idea!

Edited December 24, 2011 by Ecclesiastes

[blackpyre]

Thanks,

The hardest thing about it was figuring out a nice tripod design. Then I recalled a bipod design LEGO used in a Mandalorian Battle pack. The rest was fairly simple. Of course, I originally wanted to use a light blay tap to go right behind the dish, but I only had black. Either way, it worked!

Will

[Farrant]

Great entry! I like a lot the lamp post, and the spinning wheel is great!

My curioisity: why did you use trans-neon green pieces for the camera flash and for the lamp? It isn't better a trans-yellow for the lamp and silver for the flash? However the final effect is very nice. Great colour scheme specially for the wedding scene.

Good luck for the contest :)

Farrant

[blackpyre]

Great entry! I like a lot the lamp post, and the spinning wheel is great!

My curioisity: why did you use trans-neon green pieces for the camera flash and for the lamp? It isn't better a trans-yellow for the lamp and silver for the flash? However the final effect is very nice. Great colour scheme specially for the wedding scene.

Good luck for the contest :)

Farrant

Hey thanks for noticing the lamp post. I loved all the lamps featured in the official sets that I wanted a tribute to them here. It's amazing how much subtle building goes into those things.

Oh, the pieces you noticed are trans-yellow. Since there is no good place to take pictures in natural light at my place my wife uses a blue light. This gets very close to natural light. Of course, when yellow and blue mix there is that green tinge that the trans-neon green has on its own.

And I can see your point of using a silver piece to show off a flash. Of course that may lead to other photo taking problems do to reflection.

I'm also really glad you like the spinning wheel. I just wish it was more in the open to get the full affect of it.

And I was just flat out lucky to score a bride and groom. I had planned to order them online but they were sold out. Then I went into my local LEGO store and they actually stocked them. :D

I think I'll play around with the idea of using silver for a flash effect in other MOCs. Then I'll see how my local LUG like the look. Thanks for the feedback! :)

Will