The most ancient game, which is about 1500 years old, has not lost its popularity in our time. Both adults and children love chess. Invented in India, the game quickly spread to almost all over the world. She fell in love with the fact that it requires the adoption of a logical solution to tasks, has a moment of competition, and many variations. The sports of champions capture the world's attention.
Variety of chess
Over time, people began to fantasize and make chess with their own hands from different materials. Traditional figures are replaced by a wide variety of heroes. These are the characters of popular films and cartoons, famous athletes and politicians, animals and geometric shapes. The size also varies from the minimum, which can be seen through a magnifying glass, to a giant king of 4.5 meters. There are desktop, road, huge park, gift.
The materials from which this popular game is made are also amazing in their diversity. Starting from paper and cardboard figures to golden ones, decorated with precious stones. Modern craftsmen and designers compete in creative approaches to this process. Chess can be glass, wooden, plastic,clay, bone.
Their craftsmen make from computer parts, bolts, car engine parts and other waste material. Do-it-yourself chess is made by adults and children, professional designers and workers at the enterprise. Joiners and wood carvers make unique works of art. Jewelers are preparing gift sets for high-ranking persons.
DIY polymer clay chess
One of the most popular materials for making various crafts in our time has become polymer clay. The material is bright, strong and durable. The child will especially like the game if the pieces are not ordinary traditional chess, but heroes of their favorite cartoons or fairy tales. How to make chess with your own hands from polymer clay? You can buy a set in a children's art store.
Before sculpting, clay must be thoroughly crushed. The longer you knead, the softer the material becomes. A figurine of any character is molded, at the request of the baby himself. To cut small parts, you will need a stationery sharp knife. When the figure is ready, proceed to the most important moment. To make the clay strong and hard, it must be baked in the oven. Firing requires a temperature of 130 degrees.
It is better to put figures on ceramic tiles, in extreme cases, you can put parchment on a metal baking sheet for baking. It is desirable for dense products to fill the core with another material, for example, crumpled foil. Then the clay has thinnerlayer and bake better. Bake an average of 20 minutes. More details are indicated in the instructions for use.
Paper figurines
Even a child can make paper chess with their own hands. Here, too, many manufacturing methods are presented. These are origami, cardboard figures according to schemes, quilling, glued paper, on a solid stand. Consider how to quickly make paper figures like a table theater.
White cardboard and, for example, red are taken. Fold in half so that the fold is on top of the pattern. With a simple pencil, a silhouette of a chess piece is drawn. At the bottom there is an extra square for the base on which the object will stand. A picture is cut out along the contour with sharp scissors and its two parts are glued together. The squares of the base are bent in different directions and glued onto a solid base for strength. Everything, the figure is ready. The rest are made under the stencil.
Figures from paper strips
Now it is very popular to make crafts using the quilling technique. Art stores sell sets of thin strips and hooks, from which you can make different pictures. So do-it-yourself chess is easy to twist from strips of paper. To do this, you need PVA glue, quilling strips in two different colors and a holder. Pawns are easy to make. Wind tightly around the hook in layers of strip and glue the edge to the rest. It turns out a tight twisted cylinder, similar to a checker.
The rest of the figures are made based on the imagination of the master. A bishop or an officer is made in the same way as a pawn,only at the end they pull the hook together with the paper neatly upwards, a cone shape is obtained. You can attach hands to the queen and glue a head, twisted separately, to the top of the cone. For the tour, you can twist several circles of different sizes and glue them so that a turret forms. The most difficult element will be the manufacture of a horse figurine. On the cone described earlier, they put on a triangle made on a stencil ruler for quilling. The mane is glued on the back side of the leg, cutting the tape with scissors like a fringe.
Wooden models
Beginners, professional carpenters, and skilled carvers like to make chess with their own hands from wood. The traditions of each country can be seen in the figurines and the design of the board. Here are the heroes from Russian fairy tales, Ukrainian Cossacks, Indians with spears, Norwegian Vikings. The masters pay special attention to the design of the board. It can be a table with a drawer for figures, a ship, veneering from different types of wood or a typesetting canvas from carved squares of different types of wood.
How to make chess with your own hands from wood, the master decides based on his skills and imagination. A novice amateur for a summer cottage can use a thick tree branch by making stumps of various sizes with simple patterns cut out. To do this, you need a sharp knife or chisel. If you have a jigsaw or electric saw, you can cut columns of different heights from a bar by making small notches on the sides of the main figures.
Having made chess with their own hands from wood, professional carvers put them up for competitions and win prizes. The price of some works of art reaches several thousand dollars. Not only the quality of the work performed is valued, but also the transmission of the traditions and history of the people, the originality of performance.
Developing children's creativity
Children from an early age love to invent, fantasize, play. Making chess together with the children, parents and teachers develop not only the creativity in children, but also practical skills and abilities. Working with paper, wood or clay, kids get unforgettable emotions. And if there is work together with adults, then children gain valuable experience in communication and work skills. The pleasure of playing such homemade chess is beyond comparison.
Learn to fantasize, work with your hands and think over games with your head. The all-round development of your children is guaranteed!
