00744, Backgammon again

Thought I'd lost these, couldn't find the original sketchbooks they came in.

Phew.

00742, Backgammon sketches

For a long time I took around a moleskine sketchbook with a stencil for making backgammon boards, so that I could draw inspiration from them and maybe find some way to print them onto the surface of a board, or whatever.

Haven't got round to it yet. But the sketches were quite nice (some of them are my daughters, obvs):

00722, Boards together

For my 50th, I asked some of the people I'd lent or given backgammon boards to bring them round for the party.

We only played on one of them - I just wanted to see them all together.

00716, Backgammon pieces, part 2

If only one thing could be said about these backgammon pieces - beyond that you can play backgammon with them and they look nice - it would be that it feels really nice when you put your finger in them.

There, I said it.

Here's the process pics:

00708, Backgammon pieces

Quick pics of pieces being cut on the cnc machine

00707, Backgammon boards

I've decided to post from my phone as I never seem to get round to processing images from my camera.

Coming to the end of a board I agreed to make for some friends.

00623 Richard's Board

It was Richard's Birthday over the weekend.

Helen said, "make a board for him, please".

So I did.

And 18 short months later, it was finished:

00621 Emerging from hibernation

I have been working and not blogging.

There has been some making, but it's been sporadic and slow.

Tom and Claire's backgammon board is the first thing to be finished, just before Christmas.

This is the inset window with their monogram set under greenhouse glass, held in place by a circular wooden frame:

They were pleased, I reckon. I was.

Wood was stuff chucked away from a local flooring company and the ply was from a skip. Properly covered in cement it was. Puuuuuurfect.

00448 Signature

Although this needs a little work, the idea is sound. A tiny glazed window, with which you can frame any text or image.

I'm thinking of selling the idea to T&C, who asked for a board to be made for them with their initials on it.

It's so awesome when it's sanded back level with the wood that it's inset into.

00441 West Show

Table space at the West Show allowed me to see for myself how the public react to something that they quite literally can't comprehend.

Although, perhaps they were all looking at me and I've just tried to shut it out of my mind.

00400 Casting pieces

Room temperature vulcanising silicone.

It just sits there looking lovely.

Then, just when you don't thing it can get any better, in goes the Fastcast polyurethane resin with marble powder and pigment:

And you think you really have got it as good as it gets.

Of course, you're right, because your OCD has reached a psychotic level and the authorities have decide that it's probably best to shelter you under their wing, pumped so full of downers that you think you're the bed.

Hey, but I still cast backgammon pieces, so I guess i rock.

00388 Holey bowley

Following the discovery that barrel hinges leave you with a box with no obvious way to open it, I woke up one morning at 5 o'clock and couldn't sleep with the excitement of finding a viable solution.

On the down side, I had to compromise on the minimal use of power tools, on the upside I borrowed a router. So courtesy of Dan, here's the result:

Lovely bowl shapes. Look great when painted, images of the final board to follow.