The following photos illustrate my latest project, a polymer clay chess and checkers set that was inspired by the miniseries 'Queen's Gambit', which I watched during the height of the covid pandemic. Below you will find all of the materials I used to make it, plus each step in the process.
I need to note that instead of making or ordering a custom game box and chess board, I chose to buy a checkers set from a thrift store and repurpose it by covering the box top with my own name and logo, which I designed and printed on my home computer.
- 16 pennies, 16 nickels (for each chess piece base - pennies for pawns and nickels for all others
- Q-tips (with cotton tips removed. *Note: you can also use round coffee stirs instead. I used both)
- Exacto knife
- Sculpey3 (or any other polymer clay in black and white) *Note: You will need enough clay for a total of 16 pawns and 16 other pieces. See sketch for the numbers and types of pieces.
- Clay roller
- Miniature clay cookie cutters in sizes equivalent to nickel and penny sizes
- Clear acrylic gloss glaze (I like the Decoart Americana Triple Thick for extra gloss. Mod Podge also make a high gloss version)
- Paint brush for applying glaze
- One toothpick (for shaping the round disks on the pawns into scallops)
- Scissors, pencil, and a piece of paper (for making a paper pattern in a trapezoid shape as seen in pictures)
- (Optional): 14 playing cards to help roll a consistently thick slab of clay. These are helpful but you can get along without them
Optional:
- Two plastic checkers with which to make handmade checkers. Alternately, you can just roll and cut two different colors of disks for the checkers. I wanted to imprint on the clay from the plastic checkers so I used the checkers from the set I purchased from the thrift store as my molds as seen in the pics below.
- Acrylic paint in black and white to rub over the imprints on the checkers to emphasize the imprints on them.
- Cooking oil - as a release agent for making checkers. See instructions.
My sketch - you need a total of 16 pawns, 4 rooks, 4 bishops, 4 knights, 2 queens, and 2 kings in two different colors. The design options for pieces are virtually limitless, but I chose to make traditional ones. Feel free to be creative in your choices!
Step-by-step in pictures:
1.
Q-tips, clay and mini cookie cutters
2.
Q-tip with cotton ends removed and marked for cutting to the length I want
3.
Rolled-out clay cut and shaped in around the penny in a sandwich style. See below.
4.
Making a penny sandwich that will be the base of each chess piece.
5.
I insert the q-tip stick into the penny base til it hits the penny inside
6.
I make a ball of clay and press it down on the stick to the base to add bulk and extra stability to the chess piece before I wrap the side piece around it
7.
I make a trapezoid pattern from rolled clay (I used 7 playing cards on each side of my clay piece to get the thickness I want when I roll the roller over the clay and cards. The number of cards I use on either side of the slab of clay determines the thickness of the slab.)
8.
Here I am trimming up my clay cover shape to a more exact size since there are several different sizes of chess pieces and I'm using one basic pattern for simplicity's sake
9.
I'm wrapping the trimmed piece of clay around my clay base
10.
Here is how the pieces look upon wrapping. You need to build them so there is enough length of the stick (the black piece) poking up out of each chess piece in order to add the top pieces, like on the piece on the left. You will then need to hand-smooth each piece to your liking to finish them
11.
Here is a pawn with the round disk on it for the "neck" of it
12.
A completed pawn with a ball of clay attached to the top of the stick, hiding it
13.
Here is the "neck" of a pawn scalloped with a toothpick or whatever you have onhand that will make little indentations
14.
Closeup of scalloped neck on pawn
15.
Getting ready to assemble ball-tops onto pawns
16.
My workbench with full set almost complete. When the set is complete, you bake it in your home oven at the temperature listed on the polymer clay package
17.
The acrylic glaze I chose to glaze my baked and cooled set with
The acrylic glaze I chose to glaze my baked and cooled set with
18.
My completed, baked, and glazed chess set
19.
Making the checkers
20.
I am effectively "stamping" the surface of the plastic checkers onto the polymer clay disks I cut
21.
Here I am pressing two plastic checkers together with a clay disk to transfer the surface design from the checkers to the clay
*Note: if your clay is sticking to the plastic checker, apply a light glaze of cooking oil to the plastic checker's surface for a release agent. This will allow you to remove the clay disk from the checker without much sticking
22.
The imprint of the plastic checker transferred to the clay disk
23.
The opposite side of the checker on the clay disk. (One side is a crown and the other a star.) When they are all cut and stamped, bake in your oven at temperature on package BEFORE painting
24.
I used acrylic paint and a brush to paint the surface of the checkers, so that the imprint can be seen on the clay checkers. You don't have to do this but I think it looks cool
25.
Here is how I paint the checker and them wipe back the extra paint on the surface, which leaves paint in the imprint. *Note: Don't let the paint dry before wiping back. It dries really fast. If you wipe too much off, just reapply and wipe again
26.
Closeup of checker after wiping back. It does not have to be perfect. This lends to the handmade quality of it
27.
Adding same clear glaze to the checkers to complete
28.
Completed sets
29.
Completed sets with original design on box, handmade fabric bags for pieces, and thrift store-bought game board
Thanks for visiting! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to drop me an email!
Happy creating!
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