Make your own chess set

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As seen (and used for good) in Ivan’s flat.

Chess is a great game to play with friends and family. It’s a timeless classic that encourages deep critical thinking skills – a game of patience, contemplation and strategy. Today we’re going to take a look at a fun and simple project that will allow you to gain a new appreciation for the artisanship involved in making a . You read that right, today’s post will be all about making your very own chess set from scratch! Keep in mind that the steps listed here are just one way to make your own chess set, so as always don’t be afraid to experiment; now let’s get to it!

What You’ll Need

  • Black and white fabric squares – you can often find these on the cheap if you look for fabric “swatches”.
  • Needle and thread.
  • Black and white origami or construction paper.

What To Do

  1. You’ll want to start off by sewing your chess set together from the black and white fabric squares. Remember that a chess set is 8×8 and includes black and white opposing diagonals! If you miss these details you’ll be playing something surely, but it won’t be chess.
  2. Next you want to fold up your chess pieces from the pieces of origami paper. There are several ways to go about doing this, ranging from simple to very complex. Let’s take a look at a few of them now: The easiest way is to simply write or draw the simple for each piece on your paper and play with it that way. You can also experiment with crumpling and folding each paper into something resembling the piece you’re attempting to depict. The next jump in complexity involves looking up the origami method for each piece – you can find these in an origami book. Finally you can actually build each piece by hand – cut and glue the paper into the shape of each chess piece – this technique is best used for large chess sets.