WIP: Chess board

[CitizenKate]

Those of you who have been to my web site have seen this design before. It incorporates one of the CraftAid corners, along with some other ornamentation of my own I filled into the border, and has been a popular pattern. This particular one measures 24" x 24" - the squares are 2.5".

So far, just all the lines are cut, and I've finished the tooling in one corner, now I'm starting to work my way around the border with backgrounding and beveling. The borders get filled in with some very tiny basket stamping. More later...

Kate

[jbird]

very good i like the step by step thing.

JOSH

[Sasquatch]

Oooooo oooooo I was wondering how you got those sweet corners I'm excited, can you tell!!

[King's X]

That's cool.........got check our your site. Thanks for sharing.

Jbird: Nice advatar pix!

Happy New Year!!

[dscott]

looks great such clean lines

Dscott

[jbird]

thanks Sam, Not bad for a no good bum ha.

Josh

[pete]

Kate

Beautiful work as usual. Curious- what weight and what brand of leather do you use on a project like this? Because of the nature of a game board- the initial piece of leather better be pretty flawless to say the least.

Also- do you cut the squares with a swivel and ruler, ruler and utility or scalpel, ....?

I really look forward to seeing this progress.

thanks for the "look see"

pete

[Johanna]

I see a bunch of flaws in that board. Finish it and send it to Ohio.

One of the things I've always admired about Kate's work is that she can jazz it up without losing the elegance of the original design. That will be a board you can display hand-carved, ridiculously expensive chess pieces on and dare the cat to walk on it. Johanna

[TimDreamer]

Very nice lines on that board, Kate! So tell us newbies, have you ever dyed a square the wrong color? I'd be constantly worried that I would do either that or color outside the lines... LoL. For something that looks fantastic, do you just start over when a mistake is made? Do you do your own woodwork or do you have that done outside your shop? I love the way you've married two crafts together to make a piece that looks timeless.

[CitizenKate]

I see a bunch of flaws in that board. Finish it and send it to Ohio.

HA! Dream on!

Curious- what weight and what brand of leather do you use on a project like this? Because of the nature of a game board- the initial piece of leather better be pretty flawless to say the least.

Also- do you cut the squares with a swivel and ruler, ruler and utility or scalpel, ....?

I use Wickett & Craig tooling sides in a 6oz. weight (2-3mm). For game boards, I have to be able to cut very large pieces out of the side that are clean enough. In other words, you can't cut around major flaws anywhere in the middle of the hide. I can work with minor flaws, like "fat" wrinkles and light scars - they add "character". I actually kind of like them. But the W&C hides I've gotten have all come pretty clean. I can usually cut 3 game boards out of one side.

I use a swivel knife with a straight half-inch hollow-cut blade to make the layout lines. I cut the shorter lines freehand, but it goes much faster when I use a straightedge to guide the blade on the really long lines. Then I model the edges of the lines to give them a slight bevel and straighten out the places where the lines intersect.

So tell us newbies, have you ever dyed a square the wrong color? I'd be constantly worried that I would do either that or color outside the lines... LoL.

Oh yes, I have indeed! Talk about a brain-fart! That was when I was still hand-dying the squares. I also ruined one once when I accidentally dropped the brush on the board I was working on. But I haven't made that mistake since I started airbrushing the dye onto the squares. The masking helps to prevent such mistakes.

For something that looks fantastic, do you just start over when a mistake is made?

Depends on the severity of the mistake. Applying dye to the wrong square... that's a start-over for sure. But minor mistakes can often be fixed, and I will almost always try to find a way to fix it before scrapping it and starting over, even if there is no known fix. Sometimes it really pays to experiment.

Do you do your own woodwork or do you have that done outside your shop? I love the way you've married two crafts together to make a piece that looks timeless.

Some of both. The frames I use are ones that I purchase. I also work with unfinished furniture or other existing pieces. But I'm learning to do more and more with my woodworking tools, because that opens up more design possibilities.

Thanks for having a look and leaving comments!

Kate