From my “it seemed like a good idea at the time” file….
I decided, instead of compressing in the forms for my chess pieces, I’d use a hot piece of glass to burn in the inserts.
Trust me…
Even under a decent vent sucking the smoke out, it was still a stupid thing to do in hindsight. The result was ok, but so not worth it.
Ugh.
Next time I’ll just use the doming set to press in the slots like I did for the set I donated.
Maybe I’ll consider trying this:
I was approached recently to do a collaborative chess set with someone. I’ll make the pieces and he’s going to make the board. I think it’s going to be a fun project really. The interesting thing is that it made me think about how I design pieces and the thought that goes into them.
There’s sort of a philosophy behind them really. At least with a Staunton-esque type set the pawns are fairly easy since they’re pretty utilitarian and generic. Once you figure out the colors you want to use and get the shape down, there’s a zen like state when you bang out 8 of them.
The king and queen are fairly simple as well. They’re simply a lazy and vaguely grand reflection of the rest of the set. Given monarchs are so far above the rest of their subjects, aside from the color scheme they barely even have to match the rest of the set.
Bishops are their own little bastions of thought and sort of run on their own design wise, again, mainly staying within the color scheme, much like the way religion and government stay apart in today’s society (…in theory).
But the rooks and knights…..those require some thought.
Think about it. The pawns are expendable, the monarchs are merely protectorates of the others, and the bishops, while mobile, really protect only themselves. But the rooks and knights are offense and defense, side by side, and all over the board.
So the rook and knight get special attention when I work. They sort of have to be right, and often they’re the hardest pieces to make. Horse heads can be tough to do on their own, but the pieces need to balance vertically so the piece stays upright, and the rooks need to be simple but sturdy in their design.
The design of the pieces is only half of the problem. There’s a lot of thought and experimentation that goes into the color choices. The colors have to be compatible with each other, but they should be complimentary as well.
Once you have that sorted, you need to figure out how to apply the color. Will all the pieces use the color in the same way or will the pawns differ from the rear pieces? If you go that route, it becomes more difficult because the color becomes used for accents on the rear pieces, adding complexity to your design.
Ahh, so for this collborative set….what to do, what to do, what to do?
Tune in next time, and don’t burn yourself.
**UPDATE** I’ve taken the set off of sale for now; the black king has developed cracks in the glow. Again. Assume (and rightly so) there’s a lot of cursing implied here.
It was a lot of trial and error I finally managed to get the black side king done on my glow in the dark chess set.
This thing was kicking my hiney up and down the shop because I was having some cracking issues with the aqua glow. I encountered high failure rates in some of the pawns, and the king had to be redone nearly half a dozen times because the glow accents kept cracking.
But, I received some good advice from Joe “Glow Joe” Imler on mitigating some issues with the aqua.
I’d like to say at this point, that it’s not necessarily a problem with the glass itself. If it were, the way I’d work would likely have lead to 100% failure. It seems to be batch related.
The suggestions….
Despite this good advice I still got some cracking in what became the final king. However, I was able to bring it up to temperature, fix it in the flame, and get it back down to room temp safely.
I think the results were pretty decent, though I’m not sure how enthused I am with the black I used. The purple’s nice, but the black tends to be prone to devitrification. I’m not really sure how best to prevent it either, though it didn’t appear in all the pieces.
Below are some pictures of the set. If you’re interested, it’s currently available on my ArtFire site here.
White side pieces
White side glow shot (green glow)
Black side pieces
Black side glow (aqua glow)
Group glow shot
As you may know, I made a lovely chess set to donate towards my friend’s surgery fund.
However, I had to ship it down to Florida to the person organizing the sale of various pieces of glass artwork to help him reach is goal. So how do you safely ship a glass chess set?
Pieces in their case
I believe I found the solution by changing my mind. The chest that the pieces are in has a glass top to it, but I certainly didn’t want this broken in transit. The solution? I decided to throw in the board I made to take pictures of the pieces on. It turns out it fits nicely on top of the chest and covers the glass while still being elevated over it. I like the box I used and will likely do it again. You’ll notice there’s extra space in there, so it’s a good universal size. But, it likely means I’ll either need to invest in some plywood or make sure that the boards are included in the purchase price I charge for these.
First I made sure that the pieces were all snug in their foam:
I had to put the business card *somewhere*
Then I covered the space in between the pieces and the glass top with another piece of dense foam, cut to fit, so nothing will shift:
Sorry about the blur
Finally, I layered a piece of plate foam, the chess board, and another piece of foam so I could wrap it in paper like a Christmas present. This allowed me to secure the board and protect the box somewhat without attaching the packing tape directly to the wood The plate foam between the board and the frame on the box helps keep it from shifting sideways:
Snug as a bug
This all went into a box with packing peanuts above, to the sides and on top. Hopefully it’ll make it in the same number of pieces it left in!
This is kind of a dual post; it’s to tell about my latest project, but also to pipe up about a friend in need.
My friend Joe is like many of my friends, self employed and uninsured. The healthcare system in the US has it’s issues for sure. You can read about his plight here.
So in support of my glassy friend, I put my current glowing chess set on hold to make up a slightly more simple set for him to sell to raise some medical funds.
The not to depressing part is that this was an opportunity for me to work on a set made with canes of glass as opposed to my current “coat as I go” method. There are pros and cons to each. With coat as I go I have a clear section at the bottom (if I so desire) which allows you to see up into the piece. I don’t know why anyone else would want to, but I find it amusing. Given I’m the one making them….it’s all me. The cane method has a slight speed advantage, but less control over the entire piece. You can prep canes ahead of time and then just start working.
This set, however, uses the cane method.
Laid out nicely
For the glass geeks that run across this, I used the following:
White side: Glass Alchemy (GA) Sex on the Beach over Colormax White. The rear pieces have accents done in Sex on the Beach
Black side: Northstar Glassworks (NS) Loki’s Lipstick over GA Brilliant Blue. The rear pieces have accents done in Loki’s Lipstick
The case is a box I obtained unfinished, then stained. The insert is stryofoam that the pieces have been pressed into to help hold them in place.
Pieces in their case
The board is an unfinished piece I stained then painted on the checkerboard pattern.
This set, the case, and the board will be part of Joe’s For Sale stash. If you’re interested contact him or Jessica at one of the addresses on the linked site.
White side
Black side
How do you create your pieces? Do you sketch them out first? Picture them in your mind and try to push that through your finger tips? Sculpt in another medium first? I’m curious because I think I’m still trying to find my “best method.”
I do sketch some things out on a white board, and that typically works well, but I also have a tendency to just sit down and go for it. This is one of those cases where this method has come back to bite me.
I’m working on a chess set with glow in the dark pieces. I finished up the pawns for the black side and I’m quite happy with them. But I’ve run into a little situation with the rear pieces.
If you have a look here, you’ll see the first version of the rooks I made. They look a lot like the pawns, and for the rooks it kind of works. However I decided this wasn’t the best look for the rest of the rear pieces, so I decided to work up new ones. This lead to revision two:
Rev 2
I like them, but unfortunately the glow glass was a bit thick and lead to checking (internal cracking) under the clear glass I encased it in. Back to the drawing board.
I want to take a moment and say, I don’t blame the glow glass. Glow Glass is a perfectly good product, but it presents certain working challenges in working with it. Unlike cadmium colors that boil if you abuse them, you often don’t find out there’s a problem until the other side of the kiln cycle. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them, you just have to be careful and work by the glass’ rules. This means babying it in the flame so you don’t cook out the glow material, and not encasing thick areas of glow with anything. I’ve had a little bit of time working with it now and I’d still recommend it, but given the cost, you really want to keep the mistakes to a minimum.
But, I pushed on to the third version and this one’s the keeper.
Rook take 3
I’m kind of glad it went to a third round, it forced me to rethink where I was placing and how I was using the glow material on the pieces, and it forced a slight design change for the rest of the rear pieces that I think will work quite nicely.
Now I just have to find time to finish them and make the white side pieces.
I’m working on a second chess set and changed my mind about part of the design in mid-process. Sometimes it happens that way, but rather than just chucking the pieces, I’m running a giveaway to help inspire folks to try something outside of their comfort zone. If you want to enter, get on my facebook list and have a look at the info here.
This is copied from the description of a picture up on my FaceBook page.
January 2010 giveaway!
It’s the “rook”ie giveaway! I made these two chess pieces and decided to go a different way with the rest of the rear pieces. Rather than just toss ‘em, I’m giving them away. “ooh, they’re nice. NOT!” You might say? Well shut up. No, just kidding but look closely at that white glass, look weird? It’s glow glass and it’s encased under clear.
So you could just keep them as lovely little chess pieces, or heat them up and pull them down into stringer for a bead, mash them into a pendant, make a marble, whatever, and there’s a good chance it’ll still glow. As an added bonus, I’ll toss a stick of glow glass in the package for the winner.
How do you win this silly little prize? Try something new. If you’ve never made a glass bead, make a glass bead and post a picture. Never tried boro/soft glass, try the one you haven’t. Never fumed with silver (and can do so SAFELY)? Fume with silver. Never made a marble, pipe, pendant, figurine, etc, etc, etc, make one and post a picture and the link here to share. Get outside your comfort zone, post a picture and be proud that you took that first step. I’ll pick a winner based on arbitrary criteria and my mood somewhere after midnight EST Friday 1/15/2010. You’re welcome to PM me the picture and I’ll post it in a separate album on here.
For my non-glassy peeps….You know I like to evangelize and get folks hooked on the silica. If you’re local to me and want to try making a bead to enter the contest, get in touch with me and I can try to arrange a chance for you to come try it out in my shop [offer open to folks I know already].
Now’s that chance to try out a new technique!
"rook"ie mistake.
I decided that for my brother-in-law’s (BIL) Christmas gift I would make him a glass chess set. He participates in a chess club near his home, and I know he plays online, so it seemed like a perfect gift. I have to say, I knew nothing about actually making one. Usually I loathe trying to do multiples of anything I make because it’s just a pain to make them so similar, plus it’s just easier to make one of a kind pieces.
I started digging around online for inspiration, to see how other glass sets are made. I knew of the mass produced junk glass set that was making the rounds a year or two ago for $9.99, but I wanted something nicer, something unique. I have to say, I was astonished at the price and variety of these sets. In the end I settled on a nice traditional Staunton type design.
Below are pictures of how the set came out. I made all the pieces from scratch from borosilicate glass, and the box they’re in started off as a basic unfinished basswood box from Michaels. Next time I need to use a piece of foam with cutouts in it to hold the pieces. In this case however, I was painting on the chessboard late on Christmas Eve, got the last piece of the set into the kiln around 3 am, and didn’t have any foam on hand.
In case you’re wondering, yes, I’m happy to take custom orders. I’d retail the set here at $320, which given 32 handmade pieces works out to a reasonable $10.00 each.
Pictures:
Black pieces on the board
The white pieces on the board. Notice the two bishops, they're a slightly different color. I think a rod of something else snuck into my amber purple bin. In this case it kind of worked though so I left it.
Close up of the black pieces. Colormax Light Blue and a stripe of GA Lemondrop over Origin Glass black over Simax clear.
Closeup of the white pieces. Amber purple over Colormax white over Simax clear
Closeup of the rear black pieces.
The pieces tucked in best I can to the box I put together.