First off, apologies for the ENORMOUS pics, I'm posting this from my phone and cant shrink them down!
I was lucky enough to get a set of great "Isle is Lewis" chess men for Christmas, just like the set that Harry and Ron play with in the Philosopher's (Scorcerer's) Stone.
But the thing I was missing was a suitable chessboard.
So I spent a while in photoshop, drawing up the fleu-de-lys borders around the squares, and then printed them out of a laser printer onto suitable paper.
I then used some gold laser transfer foil over the printed ink, then ran it through a laminator to seal the foil to the ink.
Once all the squares and borders were ready, I cut out a 20 x 20 inch square of 18mm ply, then drew up the grid and started gluing on the paper parts.
Next was to edge the board with some strips of pine
Next was to stain the back, then fit some vintage brass handles to use as feet.
A bit of black paint on the side strips, and a nice coat of wax over the whole thing, and she's nearly finished.
The only thing left to do is to find some suitable moulded beading to gold leaf and fix to the edges.
I haven't taken any photos of the board with the chess men in place yet, it's next on my list!
I was lucky enough to get a set of great "Isle is Lewis" chess men for Christmas, just like the set that Harry and Ron play with in the Philosopher's (Scorcerer's) Stone.
But the thing I was missing was a suitable chessboard.
So I spent a while in photoshop, drawing up the fleu-de-lys borders around the squares, and then printed them out of a laser printer onto suitable paper.
I then used some gold laser transfer foil over the printed ink, then ran it through a laminator to seal the foil to the ink.
Once all the squares and borders were ready, I cut out a 20 x 20 inch square of 18mm ply, then drew up the grid and started gluing on the paper parts.
Next was to edge the board with some strips of pine
Next was to stain the back, then fit some vintage brass handles to use as feet.
A bit of black paint on the side strips, and a nice coat of wax over the whole thing, and she's nearly finished.
The only thing left to do is to find some suitable moulded beading to gold leaf and fix to the edges.
I haven't taken any photos of the board with the chess men in place yet, it's next on my list!