Hillbilly Chess set

[gtech]

Last week-end, I showed a small carving I made to my sister, and she mentioned that it would make a nice chess piece. So... when I said that I had a book that had a hillbilly chess set in it, she told me she would buy it if I ever decided to make one...

Well, I decided to try a couple of pieces and see how they end up.

I began with the rooks and did 2 of them. They are a bit different from the book and the next 2 for the other player will also be different.

I must say that normally, I try to make them as perfect as possible, but considering that I have 32 pieces to carve, I decided to take it easy this time and not be as perfectionist. I want it to be fun, and I don't want to spend a year on it... :-)

Here are the first pieces,


Thanks for looking,

Gilles

[Claude]

Great start, Giles! So...what are the plans for the designs of the others: mules, preachers, Rufus and Sadie, hound dawgs for pawns?

Claude

[Dave Richardson]

Wow thats a pretty big undertaking, but I think the finished set would be awesome. The rooks are spot on. I hope you keep posting pictures of your progress........Im pullin fer ya !
Dave

[gtech]

Today, I carved a 3rd one, another outhouse with a different style.

My plans for the other ones? A couples in a Pete Leclair style for sure. A couple in the Mike Shipley , and I'll see for the others.

One thing for sure, my sister is crazy about horses, so it will be horses on one side, mules on the other side.

I also would like to do a couple of boots, but I don't know what pieces it should represent???

One side will be the serious one, the other one will be the funny, party men, crazy side. Hound dogs would go on that side I think.

I'm open to suggestions. Btw, the original Chess set I am using as a guide is from Mitchell Cartledge article in the Caricature Carving 30 all-time Favorite Projects book.

http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.co...article_medium

But I like to do something a bit different, not just copy.

From tall to small:
King and Queen: ???
Bishops: ???
Knights: ???
Rook (or Castle): Outhouses
and Pawns: ???

Gilles

[Josef]

That is looking really great so far. Keep at it and don't forget to give us the scoops as they happen. Joe.

[Jim Arnold]

Well...you have the horses and mules for the knights. The out-houses for rooks. Some form of 'mountain couple' for the King and Queen might be appropriate there. For the bishops maybe some type of Bible holding 'preacher' or a musical instrument like a banjo or dulcimer. You mentioned not wanting to spend forever on it so (because there's 16 of them) something easy for the pawns, like the jugs he uses for his bishops, or little animals like chipmunks, squirrels, raccoons and the like. Don't worry about copying chip for chip...see what aspects of the original that YOU like and what YOU may want to include. For example, with the King you may want to include the hat, long beard, a jug, bare feet, typical clothing or whatever...make it your own by drawing out the figure first or search the 'images' section under the 'hillbilly' from google or yahoo and use those images as your references instead of the original pieces, your own style will then come out as you carve. Look forward to watching your progress!

Jim

[Jim Arnold]

Speaking from personal experience, the set will take a lot less time if you do all your bishops, then all your knights, then all your rooks...all your pawns, etc. at the same time. You can use the first one (of the group) as your reference for the second, third, and forth, etc. Also, even though the sides may have different characters, if you keep the basic pose the same (ie. all the bishops standing with their hands behind their back for example) it will take less time to carve and make the set easier to play with too.

[Grayhorn]

Have at it Gteck, I never had as much fun carving as I did doing my chess set of the Qzark group. Sure it may take time but what's time when one is carving.

[Eyespeck]

Pretty cool. I've always wanted to work on a chess set.
I have little jugs of moonshine dancing in my head. -------->Pawns

[gtech]

Hey, thanks for the ideas and the comments guys, it already helped me.

Right about the Pawns, for a start, I think I could do Boots for the good side and Jugs for the bad side. The good thing is that something doesn't fit, it can be used for something else and is not wasted work...

Here is pics of the 3rd piece as a reference. Taking pictures helps see some details that should be corrected, I just noticed a couple things to fix in the look of the wood planks...

And I also included a pic of the piece that started it all.

Gilles