I had the pleasure of visiting LEGO artist Steve Mayes at his new Brick This Studio in North Shields today. I follow Steve on Twitter (@brickthis) and noticed that he had said he would welcome visitors by appointment, so I dropped him a line and he graciously agreed to me popping round while I was in the area this week.

He has a great space for building, and hopes to hold workshops and LEGO-related events there in the future.

I was able to have a close look at some of Steve’s past creations and take a sneak peek at some new commissions he is undertaking for the Great Exhibition of the North. Steve’s contribution will be 40 models depicting a Timeline of Northern Innovations, on display at the Mining Institute in Newcastle between 22nd June – 9th September 2018. [Add 27th April 2018: Steve has just put out a call for extra models, so the display could include one of yours too!]

Quite a few of the models are already built, and although it was great to see them, I was asked not to post photos of those which haven’t yet been made public, so as not to spoil the surprise!

Steve has plenty of other models on display at his studio, including local icons such as a microscale versioin of the Civic Centre in Newcastle…

And of course the stadium at St. James’s Park.

One model which I was allowed to photograph is Rocket – which will be motorised by the time of the exhibition in June.

I can’t wait to visit the exhibition during the summer and see the finished results of all this building!

I would also like to thank Steve for being a great host – and he makes a very tasty cup of tea!