chess set

[dionysus]

this is something i have made. the pieces were made using the lost wax process, and stand roughly 25-30 cm high (apart from the queen, who is knealing). this is a work in progress photo, at this point there was no rooke and not all pieces had been cast. the table is made from recycled iron bark sleepers, koto, and eastern mahogony. thousands of dollars spent to get it to this point, will apparently be worth upwards of $50,000 upon completion as a single state work or even limited edition of 5 or so.

queen

king

pawn

bishop

knight

table in exhibition space at this stage in production

another sculptural work i had in their, the greek god Pan made from a found stick and a block of sandstone

[incognito]

Very very cool mate, I admire your artistic skills.

[Psylo]

Brilliant, thanks for creating this thread

So cool. Talk us through the process of creating the peices.

[dionysus]

well, the wax you use to make the initial model (the king in that photo is still wax, not yet bronzed) is pretty stiff and hard to work with, breaking 2 kg blocks into useable amounts was the first significant challenge lol. i first made 1 initial piece (not photographed) to get a feel for the process, and see how pieces looked when bronzed and after that i started to think how i would want the pieces to look as a set (a sort of theme or emotion for the individual pieces if you will) and decided (in my mind, for sculptural work i never do initial sketches. some may say this is bad practice, but i find just working with he medium its self is best) i would give it a religeous theme, as modern chess was bastardized from pagan games by the church. the queen is based off of my idea of jon d'arc, kneeling and praying to battle instead of drawing the sword. the king i made holding an eagle, as eagles are reserved for kings in the sport of faulconry and the eagle is his eyes, watching over the battle. the pawn i made look more primitive, mail armour and a saxon style helmet plus a flask made from a horn. the bishop i attempted to represent as bitter and twisted, a wrech of a man with his sheppherds cane leading the sheep into war. the knight is pretty well my idea of the romanticised english or french night, with their pig face helmet and saber. the rooke (now) is largely based upon some of the fantastic castles around germany and switzerland, just because i like the look of them.

after i developed my idea, it was simply a matter of playing with the wax until i was happy. moulding to the basic form i was after and both adding detailing and subtracting wax from areas to bring forth detail. at the point of wax blanks, they go to a foundry to be cast (for single units with a shellgrit cast, limited runs a fiberglass cast) and poured. after this, you usually put a petina on the bronze to stop firther oxidization etc but i only applied petina to half the pieces as to be raw bronze as white vs dark green petina as black.

thanks for the feedback guys, it means a lot .

[hava]

woah. impressive! each of those pieces are amazing in their own right!

do you support yourself financially with your art (you deserve it) or do you have a day job?

i was thinking of ordering some sculpey to have a play with. :| after seeing this i might as well be making macaroni necklaces... :D

[dionysus]

at this point i am unemployed (and i mean that in the truest sense of the word, i have actively sought employment in the last 6 weeks) and a student. ideally i would work in some way with plants, using art to supplement other income so as not to be pumping out garbage because i need some coin. thanks for your kind words hava and don't let your self-view of inferiority (with regard to art) stop you from creating stuff yourself with whatever medium you choose, anything anyone can and does make has merit

[hava]

oh i totally agree

ive worked as an artist for 10+ years now

this is just my first foray into sculpting

and i also agree with the money-art problem.. it is hard to make the two mesh short term, or pre-death.