Unconventional Brits: Episode 46

National World - Broadcast Video

This week, an out-of-this-world model maker, an incredible LEGO artist, and a cake maker who likes boxing as much as baking.

Transcript

00:00In the bustling tapestry of Britain, where centuries-old traditions blend seamlessly with modern life,

00:05there exists individuals who march to the beat of their own drum.

00:10Meet the inventors, the dreamers and the eccentrics, whose daily lives are anything but conventional,

00:15as we showcase the vibrant eccentricity that colours the landscape of British culture.

00:21Unconventional Brits invites you to step into the worlds of local legends,

00:25celebrating the delightful diversity that makes Britain truly extraordinary.

00:30This week, an out-of-this-world model maker, an incredible Lego artist,

00:38and a cake maker who likes boxing as much as baking.

00:50Well, they call me Dave, Dave the Planet Builder.

00:53I've actually called myself that, but I've become known as that to some of our friends anyway,

00:59especially science fiction ones.

01:07One of the things that inspired me was Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

01:13And there's a fellow on that called Slotty Barfast, who is in a planet-building industry.

01:19And I thought, what a crazy idea. Let's do it, you know.

01:22And basically, first of all, I wanted to be a paleontologist.

01:29And then I got interested in geography.

01:34Oh, that was after I wanted to be a herpetologist as well.

01:40And then I got interested in travel.

01:42You know, I wanted to stick a pin in the world map and go there.

01:45I had contacts in Canada and South Africa.

01:47I chose South Africa because it seemed more of an invention, more dangerous.

01:52And in some ways, I don't regret it.

01:55In other ways, I do.

01:56But I travelled a lot while I was there, when I wasn't starving.

02:00And then I came back here, and then nothing happened.

02:09So I thought that was it.

02:10Then I got work with the BBC.

02:14So that set me off on relief models.

02:17I'd already made relief models when I was in South Africa.

02:21And I managed to make something of a living out of that.

02:28So really, that got going again.

02:31And then I was working with Oxford Cartographers,

02:34which provided about 14 years of stability until I came down here.

02:40While I was with Oxford Cartographers,

02:43I started going to science fiction conventions

02:45and displaying, you know, one or two of my planets,

02:48like lower contagious Earth at these conventions.

02:52And I think, actually, working on planets,

02:55it's a multidisciplinary thing,

02:59and it's a splendid learning vehicle.

03:02I always learn something about the place I'm working on

03:04while I'm working on it.

03:07And I think, to me, that's what life should be all about.

03:11Well, right now, I mean, it's quite active

03:14because I've got about three projects going on.

03:16But that's only because I had two outstanding polystyrene balls

03:21and also friends wanted me to make the fourth Galilean moon so much

03:26that they were eventually prepared to pay me.

03:31And after that, I don't see much.

03:33I mean, apart from I want to keep a special needs job going until I'm 90

03:38because it's forged the perfect lifestyle for me.

03:44It's satisfying in a way that I never would have realised

03:47had I not been doing it.

03:50So after these immediate projects, I don't see much happening at all.

03:55I'm not looking for that much for fame and so on.

03:58But, I mean, I love talking about my work.

04:01I dread the business side of it.

04:03It's invariably, well, nearly always a real pain.

04:06And then I get the feeling when I'm starting one of these things,

04:10I'm off to save the galaxy again.

04:13And, I mean, I do almost travel to these worlds in my own mind

04:18while I'm doing it.

04:21Still to come, when a former architectural photographer

04:24made a Lego model of his own house,

04:26little did he know it was just the start of a journey.

04:30Yeah, I think a lot of people are quite amazed

04:32that it's actually something that I earn a living from.

04:34So I'm Rhianne, and I'm currently a professional Muay Thai fighter

04:44out of Fierce Muay Thai Gym in Fairham.

04:48I guess it's a bit of a contrast to what I do by day,

04:51so a little bit about me.

04:53So what I do, I work for a national charity,

04:55and we support those with addiction issues in prison.

04:59So they come to us and we support them

05:01to live lives more fulfilling outside of prison.

05:05So when they're released,

05:06and supporting them back into the community,

05:08giving them a second chance.

05:09It's a bit of a difference.

05:11So I've got kind of a softer side to me

05:12in terms of what I do for work.

05:14And also, I love baking,

05:16so there's lots of different layers to me.

05:18And then the most unpredictable one

05:19is that I'm here each night of the week,

05:22training quite an aggressive sport.

05:24But actually, yeah, it's a real soft side to me.

05:26It was family that got me into this, to be honest.

05:49So it was just coming out of COVID,

05:51and I was always kind of into fitness

05:54and then loved going to the gym.

05:55And obviously, that period of time,

05:57it was a challenge because we couldn't do that.

05:59So as we come out of COVID,

06:02about three years ago,

06:03I started on a membership.

06:06It was kind of once,

06:07I think once a week,

06:08I was signed up for a class,

06:10and that was the ladies only.

06:11So I was doing it once a week,

06:13and then I got comfortable.

06:14I kind of got my basics,

06:16and then thought,

06:16you know what?

06:17I love this.

06:17I want to do even more.

06:20I currently am UK ranked number three

06:22at superflyweight.

06:24So there are different categories.

06:27And yeah, it's kind of run by the Muay Thai rankings,

06:32and they rank opponents

06:35based on kind of their history of fighting.

06:38And yeah, in the current rankings,

06:40I'm number three at my weight.

06:41So I mean, it was a shock to even enter

06:43and be present in the rankings,

06:45and I've been able to kind of

06:46fight my way up.

06:48So yeah.

06:53When you're in that moment,

06:54and particularly when I jump in the ring,

06:55there is a calm and a peace

06:56that takes over me,

06:58and I've got one thing to focus on

06:59and one goal.

07:00And that's what I really love,

07:02is that you kind of,

07:03it's the intensity of what you're doing.

07:06And my fight name is Relentless,

07:09so people often say to me that

07:10it come about my first few fights,

07:13people are like,

07:14Rini, Nini.

07:15And that's kind of what I do when I'm fighting,

07:16as I just get into the clinch

07:18and I knee and I keep going.

07:19And it become a thing that,

07:21oh, she's relentless.

07:22And obviously my name's Rianne,

07:23and people can be re,

07:24so it become Relentless,

07:25and that was kind of my fight name.

07:28And it's what I do,

07:30I guess,

07:30not only in fighting,

07:31but also in every other aspect of my life.

07:33I will relentlessly try to support people in prisons.

07:36I will relentlessly bake for my friends and family.

07:38And I just always want to give back

07:41and just make the people around me proud.

07:44And I guess that's what I did when I joined this gym,

07:47is that I built a new family.

07:49And that was an extension of kind of the friends

07:51and the family that already support me so much already.

07:54So yeah,

07:55it's part of my nature,

07:57I guess,

07:57and I just really channeled that

07:58when I found this sport.

07:59Yeah,

08:00I think a lot of people are quite amazed

08:04that it's actually something that I earn a living from.

08:06My name's Steve Mays.

08:08The company is BrickThis,

08:09and I'm an independent Lego artist.

08:12I don't work for Lego.

08:13I've got no links to Lego.

08:15But I use Lego pieces to build models for clients.

08:19I do a couple of different things.

08:20I do big sort of display models,

08:22and I do smaller custom kits with instructions

08:24like you'd get from Lego,

08:25but for usually private companies and individuals.

08:28Before this,

08:29I was an architectural photographer,

08:31so my interest was kind of architecture.

08:33And I was into Lego as a kid,

08:34but I'd stopped playing with it probably 14, 15 or so.

08:38I have a memory of some very old Lego sets

08:40that I think are from the 60s and 70s,

08:42so they wouldn't have been mine.

08:43They must have been handed down.

08:45This was kind of even before I got into

08:47the Lego space stuff in the 80s.

08:49So there's some of the town layouts

08:51that look kind of medieval.

08:53I remember one of those very clearly.

08:55And I must have been very young when I had that.

08:57And about 12 years ago,

09:00just had this hankering to build something out of Lego.

09:03So I built a model of my house.

09:05So it was the architecture side,

09:06I suppose, that drew me back in.

09:08And I just kind of felt that there was a possibility there

09:11to add that to what I did as a photographer.

09:14So architects often get models done of their projects

09:17and what they're working on.

09:18So I thought maybe I could offer,

09:20as well as photographing buildings for them,

09:22to do a Lego model.

09:24Thinking not much would come of it, to be honest.

09:26But yeah, there just seemed to be a bit more

09:28potential there almost.

09:32The photography was going well,

09:33but everybody seemed to be a photographer.

09:35So yeah, it just felt like an interesting new niche.

09:39For a couple of years, I did just hobby projects.

09:42So after I built a version of my house,

09:43I did the Baltic.

09:44Actually, it was on display in the Baltic for a few months.

09:46And I did a couple of other local landmarks,

09:48like the Civic Center and the Angel.

09:50But I was still really a photographer at the time.

09:53After a year or two doing that,

09:55I thought I'd actually make a business name and a website

09:59and offer it out properly as a service.

10:02And did a couple of projects that were kind of linked

10:05through clients I already had as a photographer.

10:08Did Maggie Center, which is a cancer support place

10:11at the Freeman Hospital.

10:13And it didn't happen overnight,

10:14but it became obvious there was potentially

10:16more opportunities there, actually.

10:18And it just grew from there over years.

10:22One of the biggest I've done was Annick Garden.

10:25They've got it on display there.

10:26That took months to do,

10:28because it's a very complicated site, Annick Garden.

10:31And obviously very organic.

10:32And I've done a lot of architectural stuff.

10:33So that was a big challenge at the time.

10:36Annick Garden was on the go for 10 months.

10:38I did a big project for Bowes Museum as well.

10:40That was probably a similar amount of time

10:41or maybe eight months or so.

10:43It's not constant all day, every day.

10:45There's a lot of stop-start with the way I work.

10:48So I don't design in advance.

10:51I just get going with pictures and plans.

10:53So then when I realise I don't have the right parts

10:55for something, I'll order them and wait for them.

10:57So there's a lot of waiting for pieces to arrive.

10:59So it's not 10 months of work,

11:01but it takes that amount of time often.

11:04But they're extreme projects for me.

11:08It's more common for them to take a couple of months.

11:10So the kits need to be designed on a computer

11:12so you can do the instructions.

11:13There's a lot more design work on a computer now

11:16than I used to have.

11:17The company might say,

11:18can you do our product as a Lego kit?

11:19And they might have 100, 200 of them, say.

11:22So a lot of my time actually is spent

11:23actually boxing up kits.

11:26There's quite a few people that will do display models

11:29and they might do the odd commission

11:31and some larger companies that do that kind of thing as well.

11:35Doing the custom kits,

11:36there's not many companies that do that at all really.

11:38It's very niche.

11:41Next time on Unconventional Brits,

11:43we'll dive into the world of medical tattooing.

11:46This is an example of one that we did on the practice skin.

11:49It gives us so much confidence.

11:51If I've got this skill, like, why not utilise this?

11:53We'll see you next time on Unconventional Brits.

11:54We'll see you next time on Unconventional Brits.

11:55We'll see you next time on Unconventional Brits.

11:56We'll see you next time on Unconventional Brits.

11:57We'll see you next time on Unconventional Brits.

11:58We'll see you next time on Unconventional Brits.

11:59We'll see you next time on Unconventional Brits.

12:00We'll see you next time on Unconventional Brits.

12:01We'll see you next time on Unconventional Brits.

12:02We'll see you next time on Unconventional Brits.

12:03We'll see you next time on Unconventional Brits.

12:04We'll see you next time on Unconventional Brits.

12:05We'll see you next time on Unconventional Brits.

12:06We'll see you next time on Unconventional Brits.

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