Chess Set
Duration
5 Weeks
Date
Spring ‘25
Design Goals:
In this project I wanted to express several different goals I had in mind. I knew I wanted to keep it decently simple, to let the materials themselves stand out. To further that, I wanted the main casted piece which would be in the center to stand out the most. Lastly, in choice of the materials, I wanted them to contrast heavily as the contrast makes the materiality stand out.
Skills Used:
Wood Working, Metal Casting, Metal Working
Inspiration
Inspiration for these pieces came from some past artworks I did as a high schooler. These often involved heavily geometric and revolved shapes. The main focus was to create a simple yet dynamic shape, which is what I wanted to include in my chess pieces.
These initial sketches would eventually lead into some of my final designs. Each one of these sketches shows the casted piece mainly being in the center as said in the design goals, I wanted this piece to be in the center.
Low - Mid Fidelity Models
These low fidelity models helped me decide what, and how I was going to make these chess pieces. These models also let me explore the materials I was going to use, specifically metal, and casting metals as it was new to me.
Renders
These renders allowed me to see what the chess pieces were going to look like as a whole, before I actually made the set. This allowed me to make tweaks to make the set as a whole more uniform and work as a family of form.
This drawing, based on the fusion models allowed me to see proper dimensions to fully make the pieces.
Production
The production of these chess pieces involved many steps, specifically for the casted piece. Learning a new process was challenging, but metal casting is quite similar to regular casting. The casting at first was very rough, many hours of cutting, filing, and polishing left me with a shiny finished piece. The bases and tops were simply made of a dark walnut that was rounded
