How can I make my own chess peices?

Question

I want to make some sonic the hedgehog chess pieces but I have no idea how to actually make them! I don't have access to crafting tools (can't craft wood plastic ect) What material should I use and how should I do it?

Answer 1

i work at a jail & my inmates make theirs out of soap--it's actually quite durable

Answer 2

if you want sturdy wood ones, you need wood blocks and a lot of sandpaper(or one of those sandpapering machines)

Answer 3

First the joke: very carefully.

OK, Raschen pretty much covered everything.  She should get best answer.

Answer 4

You can buy clay for pretty cheap ($5 for a big bucket where I live). There is two different kinds of clay you can use: air-dry and the kind that hardens when you bake it. If you get the air-dry stuff, just shape your pieces then leave them out overnight.

You can also use soap, as someone else said. The nice thing about soap is that you can find cheap bars in both white and darker colours, which'll work great for your chess set. Before you carve soap, leave out the bars for at least a day, as this will dry them out. Also try to avoid buying "extra moisturizing" bars and things like that, as they can get sticky if you use the pieces a lot. Use a good, hard soap. You don't really need any special tools to carve them, just whatever sharp you have around the house. You might want a long flat edge like a butter knife, to scrape the soap off in chunks, and something thin and sharp for the finer details. A few more tips here:

http://www.ehow.com/how_11287_carve-soap...

I really would recommend using wood, though. It is a lot cheaper than you might think, and the quality of your pieces will be much better. At most craft stores, you can buy premade little blocks of basic carving wood for a fair price. To learn about wood carving, check out this site:

http://www.woodcarvers.org/faq.htm

You can also carve certain types of rock to make nice pieces, but the supplies for that are probably more expensive than making wood pieces.

As for how to carve/mould pieces, it can be very difficult, especially if you're not already an artist of some sort. You will want to make sure you have a lot of reference picture ahead of time - so if you're doing sonic pieces, get pictures of Tails (for example) from different angles; front view, back view, side view, etc. This helps because you have to cut out the design from every angle.

For some lessons, just take a look through Google. Itmight be hard to find advice from a page not specifically dedicated to wood:

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&rlz=1G...

Good luck!

Answer 5

By 32 bars of soap and carve hedgehog pieces out of it.  It will look good and smell even better.

Answer 6

look at the chess pieces

Answer 7

you don't need to do anything complex. just use paper and cut out the shapes of the pieces and use those.

Answer 8

You could try clay. Sculpt it, burn it, then paint it.