Getting ready to set up a storefront

It's been a while between posts--not due to a lack of activity, though.  We've been busy getting our games itemized and put into a catalog as we get ready to open an online storefront for our games!  Still have a lot to do, but just yesterday we bought a mini tabletop photo studio set so we can take well-lit, high resolution pictures of the boardgames we want to offer for sale (see below for an example).  

Red and Black Senet Board

The picture doesn't really do this one justice.  We were playing around with color effects, and I quite like the way this one came out, though the dark staining is exaggerated.  This Senet board has a kind of burned-wood look.

Painting Senet boxes using Egg Tempera

We decided when we first started creating Senet board games that we'd use egg tempera for any painted surfaces. Egg tempera, also simply called tempera, is a painting medium used since the time of the pharoahs, if not even earlier. It's simply a mix of pigments with a binder, in this case egg yolk. Egg tempera was the primary method of painting until oil-based paints gained popularity in the 1500s.  In the images below, we're mixing pigment with the binder, and have applied a base coat.

Senet box under drawings

These are the penciled underdrawings for two Senet boxes, which will be painted using egg tempera.  The boxes themselves are some of our earlier designs, and have larger overall dimensions.

New Tafl Pieces

Had to wait three days for our new tafl piece mold to cure, but it was finally ready to go last night. We went ahead and cast a set for Tablut.  These are simple black and white, I'd like to go for more of a stone like effect later.

Game Board Squares

Spent some time today cutting squares out of oak plywood.  These are 1 1/4 inch squares that we'll use for our tafl games (mainly Tablut and Ard Ri for now).  We use the same size for our Seega games, but we typically use pine for those.  During assembly, we need to do a light sanding to make sure everything fits correctly, and then the pieces are glued onto a base.

Blue Senet Boxes

Two new Senet boxes.  No dark boarders for the game squares this time, and we used a brayer to apply the paint--really like the fading effect.  The markings and the sun disk on the scarab are copper leaf.

Casting new Tafl Game Pieces

So we decided we wanted a choice of game pieces for our Tafl boards.  For the new set, we're going simple, just a sphere on a base, inspired by some of the simple stone pieces of authentic germanic boards.  It's all one piece, cast in the same mold, but we'll play around with simple color variations.  These four will be used to create a 4-piece master mold.  This picture shows the new ones in front of a few of our larger Tafl pieces.

Blank Tablut Gameboard

It's been over a week since I've cut anything, so I cut and shaped the frame to this 11 x 11 Tablut board that I made about 2 weeks ago.  Here they are, unsanded, unstained, and unglued.   We're also working on a new design for the tafl game pieces.  I found some cool glass globe style tafl game pieces online that I think I'll base a new set on.

Carved Senet and Tjau Game Box Lids

These are some examples of our first Senet and Tjau game boards.  The squares, symbols, and edging are all hand carved.  These take more time and care to create, but are very much worth the effort.

Gluing the Tablut Frame

Finally got around to gluing the frame for the Tablut board.  The frame is only about half an inch thick at its widest, so my corner straps were a little tricky to get in place. 

The individual squares for this board are 1 1/4 inches on a side, and the overall gameboard is just under 12" x 12" with the frame.

Oiling Senet Boxes

Applying Danish oil is something we do to all our boxes and gameboards.  Whether we use dark walnut or natural, it really brings out the grain of the wood.  For most of our game boards, this is the second to last step before we finish them. The last step is typically to apply a water-based polycrylic finish to further protect the wood and any paint or leafing.

Casualties of the Creative Process

When we started building game boxes about a year ago, specifically Senet and Tjau boxes, we went through a lot of designs and experiments to see what we liked.  This unseemly pile is the group of unfinished, some almost finished, boxes and designs.  Most of them we'll be able to complete in the coming days.  Some of them we'll probably quietly put away and use as utility boxes.

Finished Tablut board

Well, mostly finished. The 9x9 gameboard is still drying (applied a coat of danish oil).  Played around with a few different router settings before settling on a border frame that we liked. Once it's dried and glued, we'll probably add a high gloss or semi gloss finish to it.

Latest Seega Boards

We felt simplicity was the best way to go with the Seega (sometimes seen as Siga) boards. The game board on the left was stained with a natural color Danish Oil, the one on the right we used a cherry color oil, and framed both with simple black.  The center square, which is the safe square in the game, we just painted black on one and copper on the other.

And Back to Tafl games...

This is dry assembled tafl board...a 9x9 grid used in the tafl variant called "Tablut".  Before we're done, we'll apply danish oil to the board, and add a border frame to tie the set together.  Tablut is the best documented tafl game--the Swedish botonist Carl Linnaeus observed Sami tribesmen in Lapland playing the game in 1732 and recorded what he could (he didn't speak the language) in his journal.
(oh yeah, and notice the Orbiter Arts wine glass--ordered a set of these a few months back, just threw it in the pic to show it off)

Assembling more Seega boards

Putting together a few more Seega boards--here we've cut and glued two more 5x5 game boards and cut and stained the board frames.  We'll experiment with some minor decorations to see what we like, but the simple origins and gameplay of Seega in my mind would be betrayed by any over decoration.

Seega--From Mock-Up to Prototype

Glued the game squares down to a base and applied a few coats of Natural color Danish Oil, then cut and stained a quick frame for the entire board.  Here the game board is dry assembled--we'll glue it together and apply a finish over the next day or so.  Still working on some good game pieces to replace the colored glass gems.

Seega Boardgame mockup.

Took a few minutes this afternoon to cut some small squares out of some of our scrap wood to put together an impromptu Seega game board.  Seega is a game we've only recently become acquainted with, which was played in ancient North Africa and the Middle East.  We used some colored glass gems we have on hand for temporary game pieces.  Game set-up reminds me a bit of 9 Mens Morris, in that each player basically gets to choose where they place their pieces (just not the center square), so game play each time will be a bit different.  Game play is very similar to Tafl games however--you capture an opponent's piece by sandwiching it between two of your own pieces (also known as 'custodial capture').  We played a game tonight and loved it--much more complex gameplay is possible than we intially expected.  This is definitely a game we'll make more of down the line.

Modern "font" Senet Boards

Just trying something different, we used a spray-on enamel for the game squares on these game boards. The clean game square symbols, as well as the spaces between the squares themselves, were covered with thin strips of tape which we lifted after spraying the enamel.  Has something of a modern feel to them, so I'm not too sure if we'll come back to this technique.

New Game Pieces for Senet and Tjau

Started to put the new molds through their paces again today.  Tried a few colors, and for a few added some gold leaf  touches.  The blue we're going for a lapis lazuli look.  We also really like the gold leafing at the base of the dark green pieces.

Game Pieces mold finished

Our the game piece molds that we poured three days ago for our Senet boards are finished.  Didn't waste any time pouring a test set.  We'll experiment with some color combinations over the next several days.

Here's the first new set on an ebony and copper leaf Senet board.

Game box in the name of Imenmes – Egyptian Antiquities | Louvre Museum

I don't normally blog about other sites, but this is a really cool page from the Louvre Museum website. If you look at the details pics, you see both the Tjau and Senet games represented. A very cool game box.

Game box in the name of Imenmes – Egyptian Antiquities | Louvre Museum

Creating new Senet game piece molds

Here we're casting new molds for our small senet game pieces.  The original pieces were sculpted out of clay, from which we cast a single mold of each type of Senet pawn. Using the single molds, we cast five pieces of each for a complete set.  The problem with using a single mold to create game pieces is that if you want to add any kind of coloring to the piece, it's very difficult to maintain consistent coloring for the set if you cast the pieces one at a time rather than all at once.

In this pic we've taped the game pieces into disposable aluminum bread pans using glue dots.

Next, we mix the mold compound.  We're using Alumilite HM III compound.  It takes a few days to fully cure, but it's very durable and flexible

Pouring the compound over the secured pieces

Had just enough to cover both 5-piece sets.

And another Senet board in July...

We've been hitting the Senet boards hard this month. For this one we've gone back to the King Tut style Senet symbols, rather than the more Ramses era symbols we've put out recently.  

Senet game boxes in various stages

We've more or less perfected the steps to produce our Senet boards.  They're not cookie cutter boxes, however.  Even using the jigs I've set up in my woodshop, each one is slightly different, and the lids are cut to fit each box specifically.  Staining, oiling, and decorating the boxes and board lids themselves also offer an incredible range of artistic licence, while staying true to the spirit of the game.  Here's a pic of boxes in various stages of completion.

Wood stained Senet Box

Not all the Senet boxes we've made have a color stain.  This one is pine with a few coats of walnut Danish Oil.  The black game squares are highlighted with a gold leaf border.

Red Senet Board

This is another finished set.  I was initially skeptical that the red stain would translate well for our senet boxes, but once it was oiled and sealed, I think the results were impressive.  We're still putting together the final molds for the game pieces themselves; when we have those, we'll be able to vary the colors of the pieces.

Rough Tafl board--Ard Ri

This is an unfinished Tafl board with game pieces.  Tafl board games are a family of Germanic and Celtic games, and the boards themselves ranged from 7x7 squares to a board to as many as 19x19 squares.  Tafl games were a favorite of the Vikings, and often show up in places they frequented.  Our Tafl board is a Scottish variant called Ard-Ri ("High King").  As is typical of these ancient games, the rules we play by today are largely conjecture, but in general the game play involves two sides, one of which is typically outnumbered 2:1.  The smaller force, in the case of Ard Ri, is composed of a king (who starts in the center) and eight soldiers.  The opposing force surrounds the king's forces and attempt to capture the king.  If the king successfuly moves to a corner, then the game is over in favor of the king's player. 

Considering the range of Tafl games out there, not to mention my own love of Norse antiquity, we'll definitely be spending quite a bit of time crafting more of these games.

Orbiter Arts now on Twitter!

This is new for us, but I figured who else is going to tweet about 5,000-year old games?

Ebony Senet Board

We stained the box of this Senet board with an ebony stain.  The papyrus plants around the base, at the ends of the game board, and the inner squares of the game squares, are all copper leafing.

Tafl Board Game Pieces

We finally created the molds to cast game pieces for our tafl board.  The amount of detail that the  cast resin pieces picked up from the carved wood prototypes was amazing.  Like Senet, the rules for Tafl board games are largely reconstructed with a healthy dose of educated guesswork.  One thing that is consistent is the ratio of pieces, where one side is set against a side with twice the number of knights.  In addition, the smaller side has a King, who attempts to evade the larger force.

This image shows the original wooden prototype on the right, with  the first casts on the left. Like chess, the difference between the two sides is the difference in color. Red typically represented the side of the King.

Here's a close up of the king flanked by two of his knights.

Green Senet Board

This is a new style of Senet board altogether for us.  The overall dimensions are smaller (12x4x2.5 inches), and we're using a simple rabbet joint instead of mitered or finger joints.  We used a green wipe-on wood stain for the box, board squares, and the stylized papyrus blossom.  The simplicity of this gamebox has a strong asthetic appeal. 

Game Piece Prototypes

We have designed several game pieces which end up falling into two categories: those which come in pairs, like the bottle and lamp or the papyrus blossum and papyrus tamper, or those which are single geometrics, which will rely on casting colors to denote sides. These are still prototypes, from which we will cast molds this week, then cast multi-piece molds (if we still like them) for final production.

Carving Details

Some more close ups of some of our carving efforts: crocodile throwing sticks for senet and the game hnefetafl game pieces.

Hnefetafl--branching out a bit

For the last several months Senet and Tjau have been our focus (or obsession, whatever).  While we'll continue to produce works inspired by these games, we've started to look at other cultures and other ancient games as well.  Ancient Indian and Germanic games have been on our list of games to pursue for quite a while.  This picture shows the two main game pieces we'll probably use for the germanic Hnefetafl strategy game.  The pieces were hand carved out of wood, and we'll use them to produce molds the same way we did for the Senet game pieces.

Senet Board with Geometric banding

The edging of this ebony-stained Senet box is inspired directly from a geometric pattern that was repeated often at least in 14th Century BC Egypt.  You see it on the neck piece of the bust of Nefertiti from El Amarna (circa 1340 B.C.), the feather decorations on King Tut's gold coffin and his duck head chair (both circa 1327 B.C.).

If you look at the top edge of the neck piece the bust of Nefertiti you'll see the pattern we used here.  The image was taken from the Wiki entry on Nefertiti, taken by Phillip Pikart, and is published here under the GNU Free Documentation License.