Making a Chess Set: Sizing Question

Found a website that tells you how to make your own set.

http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_6699234_build-chess-set-scratch.html

You need something called Sculpey Clay

Creating the Game Pieces

Using the Sculpey clay and a picture of a chess set as your inspiration, create
16 pawns, 4 rooks, 4 bishops, 4 knights, 2 kings, and 2 queens.

Try to make the matching pieces look identical.

Place the game pieces on a flat cookie tray and put them in a 275-degree
oven for 15 minutes per 1/4 inch of thickness. So, if your queens are 1/2 inch
thick, they'll need to bake for half an hour. When they've finished baking,
they'll need to cool for a few hours. They should be hard to the touch.


Paint half of your pieces (8 pawns, 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 knights, 1 king, and
1queen) a color of your choice.

Paint the other half of your pieces a different color.

Allow the paint to dry and then give the pieces a coat with the clear spray paint.

Well that sounds easy enough. A piece of cake.

Where do I get Sculpey Clay from?

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Found a website that tells you how to make your own set.

http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_6699234_build-chess-set-scratch.html

You need something called [b]Sculpey Clay

Creating the Game Pieces

Using the Sculpey clay and a picture of a chess set as your inspiration, create
16 pawns, 4 rooks, 4 bishops, 4 knights, 2 kings, and 2 queens.

Try

Well that sounds easy enough. A piece of cake.

Where do I get Sculpey Clay from?[/b]

Looks like you can get it online, 10 bucks for 1 3/4 pounds of the stuff. You might need two packages to do a decent chess set.

http://www.buy.com/prod/sculpey-clay-soft-pliable-1-3-4-lb-white-ckc220000202/q/listingid/93747510/loc/101/205803707.html

Originally posted by gorookyourself
I mentioned weights. Keep up man.

Yeah, but you didn't even MENTION depleted uranium😉

Sculpey clay is horrible stuff. I'd much rather have a stoneware set.

Gorookyourself and Folderer - Thats an encouraging offer - even though I realize its a very, very tentative one at this stage. And I should stress that I'm here for technical information and not to peddle what might turn out to be garbage - but again that type of encouragement is welcome. Unfortunately it will be a little while before I'll post any pictures. Now that my feet are to the fire, I expect I'll have to make about half a dozen variations or more of any piece and I've yet to tackle the bishop and pawn. That said, the chess set is a new challenge for me as a potter with almost unlimited possibilities. Its rare that I'll stay in for OT to continue working, but I've found myself doing just that on this set.

Regarding the weights, those would have to be attached after the piece is fired. I fire at 2400 degrees/1315 C so the lead would liquefy pretty quickly. Steal, I'm not sure what would happen there. The red clay I use has a high content of iron in it (hence the red colour - its mined from Death Valley California). When the clay is fired, its specked with spots of iron - so the iron is melting some. Chances are, with a plug fired in the clay something would go wrong - cracking or rattling as you mentioned Folderer. Without having any lead on hand (and I'm not sure yet where I'll find it), plan A is to make a little depression in the base of the clay, score that and either glue or melt in a lead plug.

As for figuring out the placement of pieces on the board, I've never had that problem. RHP seems to get it right for me 100% of the time. Which begs the question, why build a chess set then if you've got nobody to play. I don't really have a good answer to that, other than to have a nice set to go through the notation in Silman's book and to create an air of 'chessness' in the house so I learn through osmosis.

Greenpawn - The Sculpey clay chess set looks like it could be fun. Looking at the tutorial and the instruction 'try to make the pieces look identical' gave me a chuckle. And the photo they've provided is to my eye anyway a misleading one. Those pieces appear to me to be moulded. Which is fine, but theres a certain skill set needed to make moulds. That or they've been thrown on a wheel.

I've never worked with polymer clay before, so I can't say one way or another as to its qualities. My guess is they'd be brittle, so you'd want to avoid the traditional lathe turned look - though I don't really know, so either testing or someone with specific knowledge could clear that up. If you or anyone else is interested in making clay pieces, I'd be happy to give a few pointers to take out some of the bumps in the learning process.

As to where to find that stuff, I've seen it in store where I buy my clay and supplies. Next time I'm out that way, I could ask about it. So I'd check in either a clay/art/hobby/arts and craft store. Another possibility would be to make your own low fire clay (as opposed to Sculpey which is not actually clay) pieces. There are usually low fire electric kilns around in schools or potters guilds and the like that are accessible to people willing to pay a couple bucks for some kiln space. Clay is cheap and tools are simple.

Well I did my first set and what a success.

Watch the next BLOB, I mean BLOG.

Originally posted by redpen1919
So I'm a full time slab building potter and I've decided to make myself a chess set out of clay. If it turns out, I might like to make more for sale. Having played 99% of my games on RHP and living in a small rural town I don't see too many physical chess sets.

I'm wondering if there is some fairly hard and fast rule about the dimensions of the che ...[text shortened]... e of (an actual standard, the aesthetic of tallest to shortest from the centre out, etc.?)?

If i was going to do this for money, i would probably stick to the Staunton standard chess pieces. They are widely recognised as the standard for competition chess sets (obviously novelty sets being undesirable in such situations..)

I think you should make a clay garden set with knee sized pieces! That would be awesome!! 😀

Originally posted by redpen1919
So I'm a full time slab building potter and I've decided to make myself a chess set out of clay. If it turns out, I might like to make more for sale. Having played 99% of my games on RHP and living in a small rural town I don't see too many physical chess sets.

I'm wondering if there is some fairly hard and fast rule about the dimensions of the che ...[text shortened]... e of (an actual standard, the aesthetic of tallest to shortest from the centre out, etc.?)?

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but would it not be a bit easier to simply purchase a decent tournament size chess set online, and have it shipped to you?
You seem like a strong player. Taking the time to set up the position, and search for your next move by moving the pieces is a time tested way of finding the best move you can. Shipping to rural areas such as yours may be a bit slow, but not more than 1-2 weeks. 😏

Originally posted by Marinkatomb
If i was going to do this for money, i would probably stick to the Staunton standard chess pieces. They are widely recognised as the standard for competition chess sets (obviously novelty sets being undesirable in such situations..)

Contrariwise, if I were going to sell hand-made chess sets, I'd avoid Stauton like the Mexican flu. When someone buys a beautiful hand-made set, made of a breakable material no less, he wants it for display. Maybe to play a placid game with his Rotary buddy on a Sunday afternoon, but mainly for display. So make it pretty and striking to look at. Let the plastic and wood mass production factories stick to the Staunton sets for serious use.

Richard