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.