Friday, December 17, 2010

Wine Cork Chess Set



This might be a crazy idea.... I decided to make a homemade Wine Cork Chess set for my daughter's boyfriend for Christmas.

SUPPLIES:
  • Wood chess board - I found mine at the local thrift store for $2.98.
  • Wine Corks - I bought wine corks on ebay. The man I purchased the corks from was kind enough to make sure I had 16 of the same for the pawns, 4 of the same for the knights, etc. (He probably thought I was crazy for sure! )
  • Wood disks - I bought these at Michaels. You need 32.
  • Acrylic paint - Black, Bordeaux Wine, and I mixed up a tan that matched the cork color.
  • Chess piece graphics - See below.
  • Modge Podge
  • Hot glue gun and glue sticks
First I decided which Wine corks were going to be each piece:

2 Kings - Vignobles Ducourt Wine (it has a crown on it)
2 Queens - High Note (just thought it worked...)
4 Bishops - Bogle (for the B)
4 Knights - Cycles Gladiator (Gladiators are like Knights, right?)
4 Rooks - Rabbit Ridge (for the R)
16 Pawns - Geyser Peak (for the P)


1. I found symbols for the pieces on google images. I figured out the size of the tops of the corks and printed them out on cream colored paper. I cut them all out.
2. I painted the bottom wood disks, 16 Bordeaux Wine and 16 Black.
3. I painted the tops of 16 corks with Bordeaux Wine and 16 with a tan that matched the corks.
4. I hot glued the corks to the wooden disks.
5. I modge podged each symbol onto each piece. I put the black symbols on the corks painted tan with the black wooden disks. I put the cream symbols on the corks painted wine color with the wine colored disks.


To store them I used a wooden box, sort of like a large recipe file box I had in the closet!
That's it! I will let you know what he thinks of his gift after Christmas.
Enjoy!





5 comments:

Unknown said...

Genius! This would be the perfect gift for a chess lover!

Stefanie said...

OH!! This is SOOO cute and such a clever idea! Almost makes me want to take up chess so that I would have an excuse to make one.

Libby said...

I love it!! I don't play chess, but if I did, I'd hire you to make this for me =)

Amy Lee said...

The chess board idea like yourself are both amazing!Amy Lee rife

Kathleen said...

You ladies are too sweet. Thanks for the comments!

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