A friend was using amber and clear small (~13mm) glass gems as counters for another game, and I realized that by gluing pictures of animals to the bottom I could have a set of glass Arimaa animals. As it turned out, the pieces are difficult to see because of the curvature of the glass. This was the original inspiration for the series of glass pieces below.
Photos coming soon.
The board measures 11.875" (30cm) across; the pieces are each approximately 1.25" (33mm) in diameter.
Based on the results of the small pieces, I found larger and flatter all-white glass gems in the floral section at at Cost Plus, bought gold and silver art paper at a Michael's craft store, and glued some larger animals to the bottom of the glass pieces. I like the look of the gold and silver paper on the clear glass better than the white paper on amber and clear glass. The only trouble with this set is that about half the gems in the tubs I got from Cost Plus are iridescent, and the other half are clear. The iridescent glass is harder to see through, and the animal pictures are obscured. So I had to buy a lot of extra glass and discard the iridescent ones. I made these pieces shortly after making the travel size ones above.
The board is a single piece of white oak, planed, grooved with a "V" bit on my router, and stained with a commercial red oak color stain. I painted over the sides, traps, and lines with a diluted mix of black latex paint, darkening these spots without entirely obscuring the woodgrain. The whole board is coated with three coats of varathane.
The piece storage box is a $2.99 basswood box purchased from Michaels crafts. I removed the hinges and latch, grooved it with the same router bit as the board, and stained/painted it the same way before reassembling. Since the pieces don't really fill the interior I plan to cover the inside with quilted blue velvet.
I wanted to give away an Arimaa set as a prize for the tournament at Gateway 2007, so I made a second glass set and a (much easier to make) vinyl board. I made two of these and gave one away as the prize set at the Arimaa tournament at Gateway 2007.
The pieces use the same technique as those for the hardwood board above, but now with non-iridescent glass purchased from Wholesalers USA. In addition, I bought a 1.25" diamater punch that made it much faster than cutting out the pieces by hand. The gems they had available are a good bit larger than what I had before, making pieces a full 1.5" across. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in the roundness of the pieces (many are quite oval) and the size variation; they ranged from 32mm to 42mm. So, I'm still looking for a supplier that has flat glass gems, preferably in the 35mm range, that are both non-iridescent and consistently round.
The board is a piece of vinyl fabric, cut to a 17" square with a rotary cutter. I laid out the grid by hand with a ultra fine point sharpie and an 18" L-square. The grid spaces are 1.75", so this board is a good bit larger than my hardwood board.
The piece storage box is the same as for my hardwood set, but unfinished.
To run the Gateway 2007 tournament, I wanted to have enough sets for up to 16 people to play, in case that many showed up. So, I made some fast and inexpensive sets to fill the tables.
These two sets were made by cutting a 1" dowel into ~0.3" thick wafers with my chop saw. I took two different designs of animals I'd photoshopped back in June and printed them onto Avery 1" circular stickers with my inkjet printer, and adhered those to the tops of the wooden wafers. The stickers unfortunately overhung the wood just a bit; it seems the dowel wasn't actually 1". Next time, I'll get a 1.25" dowel.
In case we needed these sets at the tournament, I had printed out paper boards with (almost) 1" squares on my inkjet. The pieces didn't quite fit, but fortunately I only needed one of these sets and I had a spare 17" vinyl board.
(photo coming soon)
My friend Stacey, who was helping me with the preparation and the tournament, found some little 1" plastic wafers with adhesive backing. These fit perfectly to pieces punched out of the metallic art paper with a 1" punch. The figures wear off the metallic paper pretty quickly when they are not protected by glass, so I may have to spray these with clear spraypaint to protect them. But in any case they made easy rapid-assemble sets in case we needed more sets for the tournament. We made two of these.
(photo coming soon)