Wow, what a great week! 100 mini Master Builders built the other half of my Lego Metro train at The Word in South Shields, and we now have a 3 metre, 1:10 scale Tyne and Wear Metro train. I was amazed by the skills of the kids who took part, and they all seemed to love the chance to build a section and put in on the model.

The model will stay on display until the end of September at least. The Word is the fantastic new National Centre for the Written Word and is free to access.

Photography by the brilliant Lee Dobson

I can now reveal my latest project – a 3 metre long recreation of a Tyne and Wear Metro train! Well, half of it at least. The other half will be built by a team of 5-11 year olds at The Word in South Shields in August, following instructions I’ve produced for my half. Simple! A fantastic challenge and I’m really excited to see how it will work out.

Tickets to help with the build went incredibly quickly, but the event is free for anyone to come along and watch. It’s August 7th-11th, with the public build sessions running at 10am and 2pm. Hopefully by the Friday afternoon the whole 3 metres will be complete…

What a fantastic weekend! My first experience of Maker Faire as a visitor or exhibitor was great fun. The challenge in my Lego area was to build a bridge that would span the ‘river’ (painted MDF), whilst being high enough to allow a boat to pass, or move in some way. Other than a couple of books about bridges lying around, there was no other instruction or guiding, and the range of bridges that appeared over the two days was brilliant! From 5-minute wonders to carefully thought out and detailed marvels of engineering that took an hour or two, and plenty in between, there was a fantastic display of creativity and imagination. Kids as young as 3 were pleased as punch to put a few pieces together that spanned the river, and plenty of ‘grown ups’ lost themselves for quite some time bringing their visions to life.

Here are a selection of my favourites…

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