I don't think you have to play chess to be able to appreciate the wide variety of lovely chess sets that have been made. I believe they are so popular that many have been created more as a decorative item, than something you can play a game on. The chess set that I have been working on is purely for decoration as the pieces are not movable.
My first encounter with a decorative, but playable chess set was one produced using characters from the tv programme Star Trek a programme of which I was very fond.
I am aware that a well known firm of bear makers brought out chess set made up with their small bears. Of course it looked wonderful but unfortunately it was not something I had space for and it cost more than I could justify spending. However, it did get me wondering if I could create a chess set made with my own MimiBears. I would get a lot of pleasure researching and desiging everything, not to mention the many hours I would need to sew each piece. Another advantage/disadvantage of making one using my MiniBears was that it would be quit small! If you have ever worked on miniatures, you will know that they can often be more difficult to make simply because they are so small.
The seed of the idea got planted firmly in my head and I began to consider what the various chess pieces could look like. What colours could they be. What accessories might be needed, etc. etc. I began looking up information on chess sets, checked my fabrics to see what colours and colour combinations might look good. Also of course, did I have enough fabric of any colour fabric I liked?
Researching the various kinds of chess sets, I was rather surprised how many diffierent types there were. Apart from the 'standard' shapes for the pawn, king, queen, bishop, knight and castle there were also all kinds of character pieces ranging from 'real' characters - from tv, films, books, historical figures etc., to some downright bizzare 'modern' ones! The range of materials they were made from surprised me. I found one made in plastic, plaster, wood, acrylic, metal etc. Some of the design were so modern or 'odd' that I couldn't recognise what chess pieces they were supposed to represent unless they were placed on a board! Whilst I was not sure exactly what I wanted, I knew it had to be something teddy-bearish AND easily recognisable as the pieces they repesented.
I felt the basic colours of black and white didn't have to be used if I could find alternatives that would work.
My first idea was to have just two colours, one for each set of bears. Ah but then what colours could I choose? I had quite a few pieces of gold fabric and thought that would be ideal for one set of bears. I had some black fabric - yes, suitable for another set. However I don't like black bears, mainly because you have to use a light thread to embrioder the nose and mouth and I have yet to make a good looking dark coloured bear! Also, sewing with black thread on black fabric is very tiring on the eyes.
I had a nice mauve colour and thought gold set and a mauve set might look good. I put the gold with the black and that looked even better! I matched an off white with the mauve and thought that might work. The mauve was not pale, but dark enough that I was still able to embrioder the nose and mouth in black and for it to be easily seen. I made three MiniBears in that colour and came to the conclusion that the colours just didn't work for me!
The next colour I tried was red. 'Red, gold and black'. I felt these colours could work together but as I didn't like a black bear, would a red one also not look right?
I had to tweek the idea a little, and came up with having all the bears looking like bears but accessorising or dressing them in the two additional colours to define which 'set' they belonged to. Thus all the bears were made in a gold coloured fabric. One set was accessoried in black and gold, whilst the other was done in red and silver.
The pawns seemed to be the simplist to start making first. I thought I could more or less make the 16 bears basic bears before I had to consider how I was going to accessorise them for each set. For some reason I made a tiny error in my sizing and all the pawns turned out to be about 1 1/2" tall instead of 1 3/4" which had been my original idea. The character pieces were supposed to be 1/2" taller but they ended up also being about 1/4" smaller than I thought.
Each set of 8 pawns had to be accessorised as simply as I could. The question was, of course 'How?' One daft idea I came up with was to try to knit tiny chain mail tops for them. Another was to cut tunics out of pieces of ultrasuede. Good ideas but my tailoring skills rank slightly below 'totally useless' and it didn't take long before I gave up on those ideas. Aother 'brilliant' idea was to colour in the fur using using various fabric pens I have, but that didn't work either. Then I had what seemed like simple solution and one which would easily indicate which bear belonged to which 'set'. I cut thin strips of black and red ultrasuede and made sashes for each of the MiniBear Pawns!
Sashes were good, but I needed something else. Helmets? Shields? Swords? Goodness there are times when I hate having good ideas which I don't think I can turn into real things! I looked at jewellery findings which had a kind of 'helmet' look, but I couldn't get them to sit on the bears head properly - another idea that got thrown out. I looked on the internet and found sheild designs. I printed some onto card, cut them all out, made little loops for the bears arms to go in so they could be held, and realised that I didn't like those either!
I really needed inspiration! I was rummaging amonst my fabrics and came across a small packet containing metalic coloured leather scraps. I am just like other miniaturists who tend to buy odd things whenever they see them and which they feel might come in handy 'one day'! I had seen these little packets of beautiful coloured metalic leather for the first time at a sewing show at Alexandra Palace which I had been to some months earlier. Might they now prove useful?
I traced out two sets of shield shapes on pieces of silver and gold leather, decorated them and glued one to the arm of each pawn bear. Progress - yes, but alas but still not quite right. I needed swords!
Another brilliant idea - take some Fimo, make a shape in a small block of it, bake it then I could use it for a mould! I could then make as many miniature swords as I needed. Needless to say, that didn't work either! The swords were to small and I could not get them out of the mould without destroying them. So in the end, I opted to use toothpicks which I had to cut, glue and paint. Fortunately after I did one and glued it to the other arm of the pawn', I was happy and then had to do the rest, but I thought the effort was worth it. This is what they looked like.
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Each little bear is approximately 1 1/2" tall and because they were made individually they are all different.
Kings & Queens. I had already come up with a design for a female MiniBear in what might look like a 'full length dress' so that seemed to be a good idea for the queen pieces. I tried to make a crown out of card then out of wire and I failed completely!. A visit to a scrapbooking event showed me charms used in papercrafting. I had had the foresight to take with me four of my little bears and was able to use them to check if anything I was interested in was a suitable size. (NB: Unfortuantely they were stolen from me when a thief took my handbag at the beginning of March 2008 - one of which is a little MiniBear wearing white pj's)
The Knights, I felt these didn't need much accessoring, just a hobby horse each. Of course having this idea was the 'simple bit. I then had to design a hobby horse that I liked the look of and at the right size.
The Bishops. The was not sure how to design these. I thought they really should have a bishops mitre and maybe, if I could make them, perhaps a crook to hold. Again the problem was to come up with a pattern or design for each of these accessories.
The Castles (Rooks) This was the piece which I found the most difficult to design and accessorise. The 'logical' thing was to have a little bear standing behind a crenaliated 'castle wall' or holding something Thus far all my attempts have been completely useless. Good though the crenaliated wall idea was, when I tried it, I really didn't like it at all. In the end I just 'dressed' them slightly differently from all the other pieces and if imspiration ever gives me a better idea, I can always adjust them!
The Chess Boardalso proved to be less straight forward than I have imagined it would be.
For convenience sake (so I could see how it might look when finished) I covered a piece of foamcore with brown paper and very roughly marked some of the squares on it. The plan was to just pop the bears in place to see how it looked as I made each piece.
I bought some card and cut squares which were glued in place. The board was completed when I added a wood frame. The MiniBears were secured to the board. The intention had been to make it look like a game was 'in progress', but when I tried this, it just looked 'messy'. Thus I ended up putting the pieces in their starting positions.
So here is another view of the finished project. I must admit, I am really pleased with it. It is totally unique and measures just 8 3/4" square (22.5cm square).
