Tag Archives: Daniel Cloward

A LEGO cottage in candy colors

With some of the most inventive LEGO part usage I’ve seen in a while, Daniel Cloward has assembled quite the bright-colored cottage. His ingenious roof technique utilizes a lattice of rounded tiles held within the clips of this part. Add that to the paintbrushes as door hinges, hot dogs in the round window frame, and minifig headwear as rocks on the front lawn, and the build is bursting at the seams with exquisite part usage. But the cherry on this NPU cake has got to be the inclusion of Clikits in the cobbled walls of the structure.

Someday…

A Voyage to Whatever Happens Next

You don’t need me to tell you that life can be a wild, wondrous, and sometimes convoluted journey. Daniel Cloward (AKA Dan the Fan), with the help of his friend Julian, has built what might be a LEGO homage to how wild and wonderous a journey his own life has become. I love the odd shapes, whimsical colors, and textures. I also very much enjoy the title of this article, not made up by me, but by Dan. Sometimes whatever happens next is not entirely controlled and maybe we have to just enjoy the journey for now. He tells us the confusing proportions and wacky details are a testament to what may be happening in his own world. We’re a fan of yours, Dan the Fan. You all can be too. Check out our Daniel Cloward archives to make it happen.

A Voyage to Whatever Happens Next

The clouds make for a lonely home.

Daniel Cloward is no stranger to builds with a storybook sensibility. But his latest creation is one of the most impactful pieces of LEGO storytelling we’ve seen. This ramshackle space is the cloud-based home of a pilot who needs to fix his airplane so he can return down to the world he’s left behind. But the pilot can’t bear to face the people below that he has wronged, and so his plane sits broken and incomplete, as does his life.

The Lonely Pilot

There are so many details in this space that speak to the lonely pilot’s state of mind – the pictures of old friends on the wall, maps of places once explored. And there’s a ton of great technique at work here: the arching entrance way, the blend of bars and tiles in the floor, the use of forced perspective. The genesis of this build was an Iron Builder round with antenna base and handle pieces as the seed part. They may not be immediately obvious, but there are plenty of them buried in this build. Try and pick them all out.

Get cosy with this comfy winter cottage

Daniel Cloward has constructed this charming winter scene featuring a cottage on a snow-covered hill. This LEGO build has an organic feeling about it, created through the curves in the rounded hill and the sloping angles of the cottage. The use of light purple on the roof is unusual but effective, as it blends in with the background sky. Claws form the leaves of the trees with the white pieces portraying snow steadily dripping off the leaves. It’s probably best to get inside quick and snuggle down by the fire, with a cup of hot chocolate at hand.

Nature reclaims elven architecture... As it should!

Elves seem to have a knack of building their dwellings harmonious with nature in most fantasy stories. Whether it is an ethereal treetop palace or a hidden valley lodging (very specific, I know), elven architecture is one with its surroundings. Books and films such as The Lord of the Rings made this trope popular – which isn’t a bad thing. However, builder Daniel Cloward shows us that sometimes this is not the case.

Reclaimed

An elven city sits on coastal cliffs, built from the same stones, as shown by light grey LEGO elements. However, it is abandoned and has been overgrown with trees, shrubs, and other vegetation depicted by various green pieces. Only the white tree with lavender foliage remains of the original elf-nature harmony, as it seems to be part of the original city. The bright colours of that tree stand out from the grey and greens of the rest of the build. This small diorama really shows off the story of nature vs man-made (or elf-made) structures falling to ruin.

Interested in more elves and their architecture? We have some more elven creations for you.