Just before we moved house last year, a work colleague/friend sold me an unwanted board game. It was a make your own Opoly game, and had not been made.
Once bought, and brought home, I gladly took on the task of brainstorming various themes for this board game. Hubby and I eventually whittled it down to a shortlist, and one idea stood out. TwinPeaksOpoly.
Once we had a theme, we had to come up with properties for sale and chance and consequence cards, linked into the Twin Peaks theme. This took forever. Again we favoured the shortlist method.
Next pictures had to be found for each property and for the game money. This was both fun and frustruating. Images that could be found of property in Twin Peaks, determined what we could use in our game. Some changes were made and then we began assembling it all.
We had a grand idea during production stage, to produce a mysterious BOB deck of cards. This idea is still being considered, but as yet, we have not done it. If we do get round to it, I will update and let you know.
So we played a few games with the finished product. It came with a few generic, plastic peg men as playing pieces. After all the hard work of making the game, the cheapy, peg men seemed half assed. Being the perfectionist that I am, this would not do.
Firstly I looked into buying dollhouse miniatures for playing pieces. It was proving costly. I couldn't find everything I wanted in one place. Also each piece seemed very pricy. So that option was out. When I was looking into little coffee mugs and pie slices, I noticed how simply made they looked.
New plan of action.
Make them myself. I started with looking up a tutorial on how to make a little mini coffee mug. Looked reasonably easy.
I remember that my air dry clay has dried out so a few wks later, when money allows, I buy some more. Happy dance home to find *nooooooooooooo!* I have lost all my clay tools in the move last year.
New tools. I decide to do research and find metal tools are preferred by many, for most clays. I had a great plastic set, but have seen many cheap ones. I decide to try the local art shops 1st. Eventually settled on metal double ended tools (set of 3) and a set of plastic fimo brand tools. Also found a sturdy, long sewing needle for fine detail.
Now the crafting bit begins.
I used Das brand air dry clay in white. I find this generally does not affect my eczema on my hands, just as a by note. Another shortlist, but this time with sketches. We decided that 6 playing pieces should be sufficient. We also decided that they should be be no bigger than a 2p piece.
I started by making Laura Palmer's Secret Diary. I figured the shape was the easiest to construct. It was fairly straight forward. I even managed to put in little page groves on the sides. When painting this I used ceramic paint and citadel. The citadel was to make the pages of the diary have a gold leaf look to them. I then varnished with ceramic varnish.
Next I made a broken One Eyed Jack's Poker Chip. I used a still from the series, found online, to get the detail just right. This is painted with citadel paint and ceramic varnish.
Log Lady's Log came next. This was a bit of a pain to get the shape right. Again I used another screenshot found on the internet. Painted with ceramic paints and ceramic varnish.
The Cherry Pie was a new challenge for me. I've not successfully managed, to join seperate clay parts together, to make one finished piece before. I knew I had to do this with the next few pieces so looked up online tutorials. Seemed too easy, but worked exactly as described. Again finished with ceramic paints and ceramic varnish.
Damn Fine Cuppa Coffee! Using my new found skills I made this coffee mug with coffee still inside. Half drunk with little ring mark on the inside edge of the mug.
The Owls Are Not What They Seem. The most challenging was left til last. Another screenshot provided inspiration for this. I painted the owls eyes with glow in the dark paint. The other multiple layers are ceramic paint. And ceramic varnish.
Now to play our first big game with our new playing pieces.
I'll get back to you on the BOB deck.
Once bought, and brought home, I gladly took on the task of brainstorming various themes for this board game. Hubby and I eventually whittled it down to a shortlist, and one idea stood out. TwinPeaksOpoly.
Once we had a theme, we had to come up with properties for sale and chance and consequence cards, linked into the Twin Peaks theme. This took forever. Again we favoured the shortlist method.
Next pictures had to be found for each property and for the game money. This was both fun and frustruating. Images that could be found of property in Twin Peaks, determined what we could use in our game. Some changes were made and then we began assembling it all.
We had a grand idea during production stage, to produce a mysterious BOB deck of cards. This idea is still being considered, but as yet, we have not done it. If we do get round to it, I will update and let you know.
So we played a few games with the finished product. It came with a few generic, plastic peg men as playing pieces. After all the hard work of making the game, the cheapy, peg men seemed half assed. Being the perfectionist that I am, this would not do.
Firstly I looked into buying dollhouse miniatures for playing pieces. It was proving costly. I couldn't find everything I wanted in one place. Also each piece seemed very pricy. So that option was out. When I was looking into little coffee mugs and pie slices, I noticed how simply made they looked.
New plan of action.
Make them myself. I started with looking up a tutorial on how to make a little mini coffee mug. Looked reasonably easy.
I remember that my air dry clay has dried out so a few wks later, when money allows, I buy some more. Happy dance home to find *nooooooooooooo!* I have lost all my clay tools in the move last year.
New tools. I decide to do research and find metal tools are preferred by many, for most clays. I had a great plastic set, but have seen many cheap ones. I decide to try the local art shops 1st. Eventually settled on metal double ended tools (set of 3) and a set of plastic fimo brand tools. Also found a sturdy, long sewing needle for fine detail.
Now the crafting bit begins.
I used Das brand air dry clay in white. I find this generally does not affect my eczema on my hands, just as a by note. Another shortlist, but this time with sketches. We decided that 6 playing pieces should be sufficient. We also decided that they should be be no bigger than a 2p piece.
I started by making Laura Palmer's Secret Diary. I figured the shape was the easiest to construct. It was fairly straight forward. I even managed to put in little page groves on the sides. When painting this I used ceramic paint and citadel. The citadel was to make the pages of the diary have a gold leaf look to them. I then varnished with ceramic varnish.
Next I made a broken One Eyed Jack's Poker Chip. I used a still from the series, found online, to get the detail just right. This is painted with citadel paint and ceramic varnish.
Log Lady's Log came next. This was a bit of a pain to get the shape right. Again I used another screenshot found on the internet. Painted with ceramic paints and ceramic varnish.
The Cherry Pie was a new challenge for me. I've not successfully managed, to join seperate clay parts together, to make one finished piece before. I knew I had to do this with the next few pieces so looked up online tutorials. Seemed too easy, but worked exactly as described. Again finished with ceramic paints and ceramic varnish.
Damn Fine Cuppa Coffee! Using my new found skills I made this coffee mug with coffee still inside. Half drunk with little ring mark on the inside edge of the mug.
The Owls Are Not What They Seem. The most challenging was left til last. Another screenshot provided inspiration for this. I painted the owls eyes with glow in the dark paint. The other multiple layers are ceramic paint. And ceramic varnish.
Now to play our first big game with our new playing pieces.
I'll get back to you on the BOB deck.
