Hobbies And Interests
Wooden Chess Pieces
Purchase simple, blank wooden people or toy parts in a variety of sizes at a craft store. You also can find wooden people at craftparts.com, maplerose.ca or woodcrafter.com.
For a complete chess set, you will need 16 pawns, four rooks, four knights, four bishops, two kings and two queens, so you will need to buy six slightly different kinds of wooden pieces and 32 pieces total. You also can hot-glue several small wooden pieces together to make one new piece.
Choose a theme for your chess pieces. You simply can paint one side̵7;s pieces one color and the other side̵7;s another color, or you can paint the two ̶0;teams̶1; according to a theme, such as lions vs. tigers, pirates vs. ninjas, boys vs. girls or stripes vs. polka dots. Buy a few extra wooden pieces so you can experiment with different designs before deciding which to use for the entire set. Use acrylic paint, sharpie markers or glitter glue pens to decorate your wooden pieces according to the theme.
Pipe Cleaner Chess Pieces
Use pipe cleaners for a colorful, whimsical chess set. You can make people, penguins, monkeys and a variety of other animals. Purchase a large pack of pipe cleaners with a variety of different colors.
You can make basic shapes with pipe cleaners simply by twisting one around itself or a pen. Add additional pieces by twisting the new piece around the first one. To make a person, begin with a basic stick figure shape and add clothes of different colors by wrapping new pipe cleaners around the stick figure. You can help the pieces stand up by hot-gluing them onto a small circle of craft foam.
Have fun designing different pieces to be the pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, kings and queens, and don̵7;t forget to choose a theme for your two teams.
Edible Chess Pieces
Make edible chess pieces for a fun holiday treat. When a player removes her opponent̵7;s piece, she gets to eat it. Roll out your favorite sugar cookie or gingerbread cookie batter and use a knife to cut out the 32 pieces you̵7;ll need for a set. To indicate the pieces̵7; ranks (pawn, rook, knight, etc), vary their basic shapes or decorate them with different patterns in frosting.
Use frosting to draw a large chessboard on a clean piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil. Make sure you and your opponent wash your hands thoroughly before playing with the edible pieces.