The Brick Bible

Author

Spurling's own commentary occasionally appears in illustrations and is displayed in gray text, and also as original titles for the stories themselves. A Rolling Stone article that is included as a link in the original Brick Testament web site suggests that Spurling is an atheist. In 2015 Spurling announced on Facebook that she was an atheist, a transgender woman, and a lesbian, and had legally changed her name to Elbe Spurling but would likely retain her birth name, Brendan Powell Smith, for her books. Her author page at Amazon.com is listed under "Brendan Powell Smith."

Lego techniques

The dioramas seen in The Brick Bible are created from Spurling's personal Lego collection. The pieces come from hundreds of Lego sets dating from the 1960s to the present.

In the few instances where alterations are made to Lego elements, they are generally simple changes made with a hobby knife or permanent ink marker. An example alteration is God's hair: Spurling made God's white hair by carving a white helmet piece. The only completely non-Lego part of Spurling's scenes is the background sky.

All of Spurling's images are digital. Spurling photographed early scenes with a Nikon Coolpix 950. She now uses a Nikon Coolpix 4500. After photographing the scenes, she adds speech balloons and sometimes makes alterations using image editing software.

Media

The Brick Testament website began in October 2001. It originally featured six stories from the Book of Genesis. The site now contains over 400 illustrated stories, from both the Old and New Testaments, and over 4,500 images. Each story is tagged if it contains nudity, sexual content, violence and/or cursing. , the website had had over two million visitors.

Several hardcover Brick Testament books have been published, The Brick Testament: Stories from the Book of Genesis, The Brick Testament: The Story of Christmas, The Brick Testament: The Ten Commandments, and The Brick Bible: A New Spin on the Old Testament. The US retailer Sam's Club withdrew The Brick Bible from sale in November 2011, "due to the complaints of a handful of people that it is vulgar and violent".

The Brick Book of Mormon

In a Facebook post made on April 3, 2015, Spurling announced a new project entitled the Brick Book of Mormon. The stated goal of the project is "to make these teachings better known to the world. It is designed to capture the interest of non-Mormons curious to know what the LDS Church teaches, as well as believing Mormons looking for a fun new way to learn and share the history and teachings of their church." The project was officially launched on February 6, 2017.

References

References

1. "Timeline Photos". M.facebook.com.
2. (2013). "The Brick Bible: The Complete Set". Skyhorse.
3. See [https://thebrickbible.com/about/ "Which translation of The Bible does The Brick Bible use?"]
4. ''Excerpt from Rolling Stone Magazine article about the Brick Testament'',[http://www.thebricktestament.com/press/rolling_stone_05_10_06.html] {{Webarchive. link. (2020-09-09)
5. "Brendan Powell Smith".
6. "The Brick Testament".
7. "The Brick Testament".
8. Tom Chivers. (2009-10-08). "The Brick Testament - the Bible retold in Lego".
9. ''The Brick Testament'', [http://www.thebricktestament.com/ contents page]
10. Eric Young. (2009-10-12). "'Brick Testament' Illustrates Over 400 Bible Stories with Legos". The Christian Post.
11. 2003, Quirk Books, {{ISBN. 1-931686-45-9
12. ''Das 1. Buch L.'' ([[German language. German]] version, {{ISBN. 3-7254-1336-3), ''レゴで遊ぶ天地創造ものがたり'' ([[Japanese language. Japanese]] version, {{ISBN. 4-576-04235-1), ''레고로 만나는 창세기: 하나님 처음 지으신 세상'' ([[Korean language. Korean]] version, {{ISBN. 89-91290-10-8)
13. 2004, Quirk Books, {{ISBN. 1-59474-012-7
14. ''레고로 만나는 예수 탄생: 크리스마스 이야기'' (Korean version, {{ISBN. 89-91290-11-6)
15. 2005, Quirk Books, {{ISBN. 1-59474-044-5
16. 2011, Skyhorse, {{ISBN. 978-1-61608-421-9
17. Terdiman, Daniel. (23 November 2011). "'Brick' breaker: Lego bible too racy for Sam's Club". CNET News.
18. "The Brick Book of Mormon on Facebook".
19. "The Brick Book of Mormon on Facebook".