MOC: Kuohu

UPDATE: I made some changes on the creation based on feedback I got on Flickr; the two first photos here are of the modified version. Spot the differences.

 This is the second creation of these elemental personifications, of probably goddesses, of old good basic elements; this time water. The series, which is sort of sequel to Four Seasons project, began with Cielan last month. I began building this shortly after it, but there was lot of other stuff to do (moving to from my shared flat to a new apartment, taking trip to Central Europe, visiting a LUG event, spending a week on a summer cottage, to mention a few) so I wasn't able to finish it for a while.

I began with the dress, trying to use beautiful colour combinations (medium azure and dark blue) with some interesting patterns, utilizing new moulds like 1x1 pizza slice tiles and triangular Nexo Knights wedges; Both of these parts are welcome addition to my inventory. It uses lots of SNOT and was pleasing build. I'm very happy with the shapes. With the colour scheme the dress reminds of a creation from a year ago, Kirika Towa Alma, but I went with largely different clothing styles to make them different enough.

The rest was build during last few weeks. I wanted to use Elves dragon egg piece somehow, and felt that a hat would be a nice idea. Cielan had a very striking hair and a golden headdress, but I wanted to avoid gold here and go with something fresher, and I remembered succeeding with a stylish hat on Fómhar. The hair was always going to be aqua, as I had recently acquired a pair of aqua pieces in nice quantities from event reward packages (2x2 curved slopes and 1x3x3 bows). I also had those smaller dragon wings from an Elves set in that colour and the made the bulk of the hair. However, due to lack of very basic parts, the connections of the hair were random and weak, and that limited the hat a bit. But I managed to stuff it with all sorts of water-related parts - the egg as a bubble, some hoses as foam, fire as waves and white spheres as steam. I like how its randomness created a contrast with the well-refined dress.

The arm technique is partly taken from another build of mine, Red Lady of the Stream, and shares the detached sleeve idea with it and before-mentioned Kirika Towa Alma. Here the are smaller, though, and use some interestingly shaped parts with some Friends ribbons bought from unofficial LEGO museum in Prague. The ribbons are also used on legs. They were challenging: It's hard to give them needed mobility for natural posing as actual legs can't fit inside the sturdy dress. They were redesigned several times. I also shot the creation twice because of them: after the first shoot, during the photoshop phase, I realized that the shoes didn't work at all - they were like slalom boots, and I redesigned them to be more elegant wedge heels. Luckily I managed to preserve the ribbons and solar panel parts used as ankle guards. I also like the medium azure details on otherwise white shoes.

This is also the first MOC finished and photographed on my new apartment, where new interior design inventions include a comfortable sofa that can be opened and used as brick storage, a real storage room and a big partly glassed balcony where wind shouldn't be a problem while photographing. Life is sweet!

-Eero.