Casting Senet Game Pieces

Over the last several months we've come up with four or five different designs for the game pieces that go with our Senet boards.  We decided it made sense to pick two of our favorite designs and just start making sets of them.  These pics show our workspace as we cast some of the pieces (usually a pretty messy process when you start dealing with the dyes), and a few sets of one of the game piece pairs we decided to go with. This pair is one of the first that we designed and cast.  I think it's one of our favorites because they're so simple, and are very true to the original ancient Egyptian pieces.

Senet throwing sticks, tafl frames

There are a lot of parts to even simple games, and sometimes the simple pieces get overlooked in favor of building the main game board.  So I spent a lot of time in the woodshop today, cutting frames for tafl boards and cutting throwing sticks for all the senet boxes we've put together over the last several months.  This is the second batch of throwing sticks, after an initial sanding.  The first batch is drying after a light stain was applied.  A couple of 9x9 tablut boards are to the right.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.