Research
The first bit of research I did for this project was to learn and understand what chess is, and how it works. I took some notes from the lecture and wrote down important information such as, the movement of each piece. I also came up with a few different ideas for themes that I would be interested in creating for each differently colored board. However, in the end I decided to focus on create a fairies vs. goblins themed set on the green board.
Next, in order to get a better understanding of the gameplay and the way players move their pieces my partner and I played a game of chess. We used an online chess app to play, which helped highlight where pieces could move and when the king was in check.
After gaining a solid understanding of how the game works, I proceeded to dive more into the fairy aesthetic. I searched up the term ‘fairy aesthetic’ and went through google images, I was looking for ideas on what characters I should assign for each piece. I also went on a few other websites looking into fairy core and goblin core.
Since I was so used to the regular design of plain chess pieces, I decided to look into this article on ‘The 10 Weirdest Chess Sets’. It helped me open my mind to new, bizarre takes on the traditional chess set. Another article that I read over was ‘18 Weird Chess Rules Everyone Forgets Exist’. It was provided to me by Zach and it was a very interesting read. The rules of chess can become so complex and the article was very useful to me during one of the exercises we did the next day.
After looking at those articles I decided to look into potential materials to use for the project. I knew I wanted to create something substantial and sturdy since the pieces are so small. I wanted my pieces to feel high-quality. Since I knew I would need a relatively thin material to create slice forms with, I ended up finding balsa wood sheets. I felt they would be substantial enough to create thick, sturdy chess pieces with, while also maintaining a thin enough sheet to cut out pieces from. The only issue with this decision however, was that there was no way for me to get time to use the laser cutter. Since it was fully booked I decided to choose a different material and focus on using the Cricut machines.
After coming up with a general idea on some character I wanted to use, I started searching for reference images of those characters. I made sure to look for images that could easily translate into specific chess pieces. For example, since I knew I wanted to use the bunny as a bishop I made sure to search for an image that contained a bunny partially standing up, so that it could reach the correct height for a bishop.
I was having some difficulty wrapping my head around how slice forms work, so I was very thankful when Kenny came around and showed me a few examples. I also discussed my ideas for the pieces to him, as well as some things that were troubling me, and he helped draw out a few sketches to help me understand. They were truly helpful and after the exchange I was able to think differently about slice forms.
A specific slide from the presentation was particularly useful to me, since it helped me understand a method of adding wings to the body of the fairy. I realized I could use a separate piece that was perpendicular to both elements and use that to connect them.
Exercises
The first exercise we did was filling out the collab-o on miroboard. I felt that this helped my partner and I get to know each other a little bit more, and get more comfortable with working with each other. We both talked about how we enjoy chess and we realized that we each had an solid understanding of the game.
With JP as my teammate we were able to score very high on the next exercise we did in class. The Jeopardy style game about chess tested all of us on our knowledge of the game and our speed.
The final exercise we participated in was creating a slice form together, without planning things out. We were allowed to pick the object for the slice form, and give general measurements, but after that, nothing else. JP and I chose to create a cat head. While our pieces lined up properly, the result was nothing but terrifying, especially the side profile.
Iteration
My iterations were first sketched out in Procreate, and then tested. Using the research images from above I created finalized designs of what I wanted each chess piece to look like.
I began testing out the forms by cutting out the general shapes of the forms with an exacto knife and fitting the pieces together. Thanks to these test forms that I created in class I was able to gain a very good understanding of how to make slice forms. I was able to create the rest of my forms directly in Adobe Illustrator, and then simply cut them out using the Cricut.
Concept Statement
In a world filled with all sorts of mythical creatures, exists a war between fairies and goblins, fighting to take back what is rightfully theirs. A stolen goblet from the goblins is held for ransom by the fairy kingdom for the return of their magical crystals. Both sides create their armies in order to fight for their lost items and defend their own treasures. In the fairy kingdom, the queen selects her trusted woodland creatures to fight alongside her and to defend the goblin goblet. With bunnies for bishops, unicorns for knights, and butterflies for pawns her offensive forces are strong. Poisonous toadstool mushrooms as rooks protect her artillery and soldiers from opposing forces and both sides clash in a magical battle for treasured, long-lost items.
Production
For production I simply began creating and designing my slice forms into Adobe Illustrator. I made sure to incorporate each piece needed to craft a form and then doubled the pieces, so that I could made them thicker. I brought my sketches from ProCreate into Illustrator so I could have something to refer back to when creating my slice forms. I was constantly designing and redesigning my pieces after cutting them out, since I wanted them to turn out very stable and secure. Taking inspiration from some piece Zach showed me, I made sure to make secure bottoms for all my pieces. I made tabs to stick the pieces into and the bended those tabs under the base with holes, then I covered those tabs with another base without holes and glued them together.
Once all my pieced were finalized in Adobe Illustrator I began focusing on cutting them all out using the Cricut machines. The process of removing all the tiny pieces of the forms was very time-consuming and I needed to be extra careful when removing the butterfly wings since they were thin and fragile. I first started out by cutting out lot of the butterfly wings, these did not account for all of them though. I just cut out as many as I could fit on the sheet.
After cutting out a couple of the butterfly wings I decided to cut out as many different chess pieces as I could fit on the page. I used these as first tests, however I did end up using many of them as part of my final production since they had come out the way I wanted them to. I realized that I was missing quite a few parts however, and so after I went home that day I spent some time organizing and seeing what pieces I had left that needed to be cut.
After I figured out which pieces I still needed to cut out, I arranged them all into some clean files on Illustrator. I also made sure to create extras, just in case certain pieces got ruined, bent, or lost. Here, I redesigned my bunny bishop piece because I realized that it was too thin, and not structurally sound enough. It would topple over easily, so I widened the base and added ovals to the body to give it some more volume.
Then, with my finalized cuts laid out I used the next class period to cut them all out. Once I had all the pieces I needed, I started to assemble them and make sure that I had everything and to make sure they fit. After checking all the pieces I brought them back to my dorm for decorating.
Once I got my pieces back to my dorm I began gluing the pieces together to create the thicker slices. I did not assembled the slices yet though. After creating thicker slices I used a glittery pink pen I had to add color and detail to each of the pieces. Then, once all the slices were thickened, and colored on I assembled them and glued the seams. These are the toadstool mushrooms and unicorn knights, and the process in which I created them.
Next, I assembled the bunnies in a similar fashion to the previous forms. But this time I needed to think about bending the tabs for the legs, and then covering the tabs using another layer of the leg.
After the bunnies, I began working on the king and the queen. The king was very straightforward and followed the same process as before, however the queen was a bit more complex.
For the queen, I began by assembling her the same as before however, the process is different for her wings. For her wings I needed to glue the one wing slice on either side of the iridescent material using plastic glue, which is very liquidy and difficult to control since it dries so quickly. I was able to do it cleanly by handling it very carefully. After the slices were glued on either side of the iridescent plastic I used a pair of scissors to trim off the excess. I repeated this process for the other wing, and then I created a thicker piece for the holder of the wings. I layered the piece that connects the wings to the body five times so that it would be extra thick and strong, which was necessary since it had to hold the weight of the wings.
The final piece that I needed to create were the butterfly pawns. These were the most time-consuming pieces to craft since they’re so fragile and intricate. Even just removing them from the sticky Cricut mats was a nightmare, since I had to pick out all those little cut out parts. The process of adding the iridescent plastic in the butterfly wings was the same as the wings for the queen, however it was significantly harder due to the thinner frame. I needed to use tweezers to create these wings since my fingers were too big to handle the delicate thin frames and plastic glue. Even with the tweezers, I still ended up with tons of plastic glue on my fingers and hands that did end up flaking away after a while. Once I finished crafting each of the wings I needed to thicken the tiny half circles that are to be used as feet for the butterflies. I glued three tiny half circles together to create one of the circles used to connect the wings, and each pair of wings needed four circles, for eight pair of wings. Which means I ended up gluing together ninety-six minuscule half-circles together. This part of the process was very pain-staking and required a ton of patience, but I feel that it was worth it in the end due to the final result. After all the circles were assembling and the wings were trimmed I was finally able to glue and assemble the pieces together to create some very sturdy feeling butterflies.
After I was done construction all the butterflies I went back in with my pink glittery pen and outlines the wings and the half circles. I knew I needed to add some pink to these so I could keep my entire chess set cohesive.
Final Composition
