Nature Freak: An Interview with Emil Lidé
/Best of BrickNerd: Weekend Highlight — Article originally published November 10, 2021.
Today it’s my great pleasure to showcase a fellow RLUG-member and a truly awesome builder and person, Emil Lidé. He is probably best known in the community as Full Plate, or perhaps “that guy that makes awesome trees and landscapes“. He is also a former contestant on the Swedish edition of LEGO Masters!
We actually joined the Swedish RLUG Swebrick around the same time if I’m not mistaken, and the first thing I remember about him is one of his signature trees. It had the most insane trunk (made with like a thousand little axes and droid-arms!) and looked so organic I almost couldn’t believe it was made out of LEGO. Since then, he’s been known in the community as someone who builds some of the most amazing landscapes and continuously comes up with great new techniques for building foliage and all the stuff that makes nature scenes look believable.
Andreas Lenander: Welcome buddy, and thank you for taking the time to chat with us at BrickNerd! So tell the people, who are you and how long have you been building with LEGO?
Emil Lidé: Hi! My name is Emil Lidé. I'm from Sweden and I’m 41 years old. I have a family with three kids and work as a software developer. I’ve been building LEGO for close to 7 years now as an adult.
Andreas: Awesome, and hooray for Sweden! What got you into the hobby? Or back into it?
Emil: When my son got his first LEGO set (31025 Mountain Hut), I remember sitting down to build it with him and opening the box and looking through the instructions—and it all just came back to me from when I was building as a kid. So that was the starting point. Of course, nowadays we have the internet, so I went online to check out what others were building and I came across Eurobricks. The first two builds displayed there were BlueWater Castle by Cesbrick (César Soares) and Amortug, an amazing castle diorama by Marco den Besten and Tijgersan. Seeing these two builds just blew me away. I had no idea you could build such awesome creations in LEGO. Then I figured, if others can do it, so can I, then it went on from there.
Andreas: Ok, the question that is certainly on everyone’s mind, what’s up with all the trees?
Emil: Haha! When I first started building LEGO, I wanted to do landscapes. After having built for a bit, I realized that the hardest part of the landscape to get to look “right” were the trees. They always looked awkward and not very realistic, while the rest usually looked ok. Essentially it was the trees that were holding me back from creating the builds I wanted to create. So, I started to experiment a lot, trying out different styles and using different elements to see how I could create more realistic trees, and it kind of became my niche.
Andreas: Well that you for clearing that up! I’m curious, you’ve told us how you like to build, but why do you build? Is there anything specific that drives you (aside from the obvious massive financial benefits that we all enjoy)?
Emil: I think most of us have an innate desire to create. Having an image of something in my head and then being able to give it form in LEGO, that’s something I love to do. I often build nature, because that’s something I personally enjoy looking at, and creating my own version of a place where I’d like to be is something that gives me joy. Perhaps especially during the cold dreary winters here in the north. LEGO also doubles up as something to relax with, and as a father, it has been great to have a hobby that enables me to spend more time with my kids while building, though it took some training to get the little ones to keep things tidy while building.
Andreas: I totally understand about escaping the cold winters through building! Looking at your work, do you feel that you have a certain building style?
Emil: Yeah, I’d probably say so. My aim is almost always realism, and as my main interest is nature builds which in turn means making things look organic. Of course, you don’t always get all the way there, but even failed builds are usually a stepping stone in your development. So yeah, organic nature builds, that’s hopefully my style, haha!
Andreas: Speaking about your nature builds, you do build a lot of them. Where do you find inspiration?
Emil: My main two sources of inspiration are the things I observe in life and what other builders are creating. Inspiring others and being inspired by others, in turn, is really the backbone of the LEGO community. There are so many great builds and builders out there, and if you’re starved for inspiration, spending some time checking out what others are doing is an easy way to get ideas. Of course, you have to find your own style based on what you like and enjoy building. For me, it’s mostly nature and landscapes, so driving in the countryside or taking a walk in the forest are also big sources of inspiration for me.
Andreas: Are there any builders out there that inspire you? (Feel free to heap praise on yours truly, flattery is always appreciated!)
Emil: Oh man, there are sooo many, haha! I think the beauty with LEGO is that it’s so wide that you have loads of people that are experts in their own little niches. If I were to name my top two inspirational builders it would probably be Ralf Langer and Jonas Kramm. Jonas is an all-around amazing builder that seems to be able to build ANYTHING and do it well. To me, he’s a builder without a niche that brings the same excellence to whatever he builds. And Ralf basically does what I wish I could do, building realistically and organically, inventing crazy techniques that make things look like real life. I think the best masterclass in realistic building available would probably be to just simply look through all his builds and try to recreate them. Not that I ever tried that... and failed... cough, cough…
Being from Sweden, there are also loads of local inspirational builders here. My LEGO Masters brother-in-arms Peter Ilmrud, the lightning-fast builder, Andreas Lenander (blush, you mentioned me!) who I once thought I could try to keep up the pace with…and also Jonas Wide who is an extremely experienced builder who is always ready to help and give advice to us “newcomers”. Plus many more… inspiration is the name of the game in the LEGO community!
Andreas: That is some pretty awesome company to keep! (And thanks for the totally unprompted shoutout!) But that is also a lot of pressure to live up to. Do you feel any pressure when building?
Emil: Generally I’d say no. When building at home, I mostly just follow my own inspirations and make the best of it, and if I think it’s something that is good enough to post, I’ll just post it. And if it didn’t turn out well, just move on to your next thought. I’m a strong believer in pursuing your ideas, whenever they come to mind. I think most of the interesting techniques I’ve developed came to me while I was building something else and then got a thought “what if I did like this?” and then I pursued the idea and it turned out great.
I’m often asked how I come up with ideas, and this is how it usually happens. If you get an idea while building, put what you’re doing aside and try out your idea! Many times it doesn’t work out—I’d say about 9 out of 10 of the ideas I try out don’t work or end up looking strange—but when something DOES work out, you’ve usually stumbled upon something great! But it’ll never happen if you never try.
Andreas: All right, time for some hard-hitting, quick questions. First LEGO set you remember?
Emil: 6080 King’s Castle is the first set I remember. I got it from my parents when I was quite young, probably around six years old, and I loved building and playing with it!
Andreas: Awesome, that’s was my first set as well! Ok, favourite piece and why?
Emil: I think it really changes over time, but I guess being a tree dude I’d probably go with the 6x5 leaf element which I work a lot with. Flexible and with an organic look—what’s not to like?
Andreas: You can bring back one theme—which is it, and why is it not Galidor?
Emil: I loved the natural color schemes of the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit themes, so I’d probably go with those, though admittedly I don't really know much about the older themes, so there might be something even better there.
Andreas: Do you prefer the online part of the hobby (like posting pictures of your work, etc) or attending in-person conventions more?
Emil: I’d say I enjoy both, though I typically build for online, and then when a convention comes around I bring whatever I happen to have lying around.
Andreas: How many PaB-cups do you own?
Emil: About 25 I think.
Andreas: Where do you rank on the LEGO purist scale?
Emil: I’d say when it comes to what pieces are ok to use, I’m quite conservative—but when it comes to techniques I’m very liberal. So basically, just use actual LEGO pieces but do what you want with them (to an extent of course). I find the whole purist discussion both very interesting and somewhat annoying at the same time, haha!
Andreas: Are you open with your LEGO interest in your private life? Have you ever had any negative experiences in regards to that?
Emil: Yeah, I’ve never had any concerns about being open with my LEGO building, and I have never had anyone say anything negative about it.
Andreas: Do you express your creativity and enthusiasm about nature using other mediums (painting, drawing, interpretive dance, etc.)?
Emil: I grew up in a musical family, so music has always been around, and I play a lot of guitar as well as dabble in a number of other instruments. As a medium, music is quite different from LEGO though. Whereas music is fleeting and must be experienced in the moment, LEGO is static and invites you to explore and study it.
Andreas: Do you have anything specific that you want to ”accomplish” as far as LEGO is concerned?
Emil: I think if you enjoy what you do and keep doing it—“accomplishments” will likely come along the way, but those are not my motivation for building LEGO. That being said, I certainly have many ideas of builds I would like to build someday, as I’m sure we all do.
Andreas: Do you ever feel like ”to hell with nature, I’ll build a spaceship!”?
Emil: Haha, no actually. Well, I do certainly enjoy building other things, and I experiment with techniques outside of nature as well. But building nature is where I feel at home, and to date I have yet to be tired of it.
Andreas: One thing I appreciate about your presence online is that you share so many great technique tutorials. What motivates you to share your techniques with the community?
Emil: To me, the LEGO community is about being inspired by others and inspiring others in turn. I think we all have to recognize that we would not be the builders we are today without the inspiration we’ve received from others. So, sharing my techniques with others was a natural thing to do—a way of paying back for what I’ve learned (and keep on learning) from other builders. It is also the greatest feeling when you see people using, or even improving upon, the techniques you’ve developed. Seeing others create wonderful works of art, and knowing that you helped them achieve that is deeply moving. Nature is my scene, and my hope is that I have made some kind of impact there, bringing the art of LEGO forward together with everyone else in the community.
Andreas: Thank you so much again for taking the time to answer my questions. As always it’s a blast to chat with you. Where can people follow you and your future LEGO endeavors?
Emil: Thank you! You can either check out my work of Flickr or Instagram, or if you want some more in-depth stuff you can check my website.
I hope you all enjoyed this conversation as much as I did, and hopefully you’ve been inspired to try out some of the great techniques that Emil has come up with. Or perhaps you’re working on some trees yourself—if so make sure you share it with the community as that’s what it’s all about!
What are some of the best tree techniques you have seen? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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