As 2015 came to a close, young Tejas made a bucket list of all the fun art things he wanted to do at some point. This the story of the first item to get crossed off the list.
I created this piece as an exercise in simplicity. I wanted to design abstracted chess pieces that brought out the distinguishing features in each piece, while maintaining a more modern structure. Traditionally, the base of all the chess pieces are the same, with the size or top half varying in each piece. They are, for the most part, symmetrical around an axis, as opposed to a plane. For my set, I simplified each one as much as possible while still maintaining the general structure and hierarchy of an functioning chess set.
Process: With the help of the ever so lovely Sprice, I modeled each piece in Autodesk Inventor, and then 3D printed the whole set. I then used investment casting to create the bronze positives, finishing half of the pieces with potassium sulfate to differentiate the opposing players' pieces.
Inspiration: Chess Set by Man Ray
Material: 3D printed PLA, bronze, various wood
