Collection: Fun & Games

 

CHESS SETS

These chess sets are each unique. They feature a variety of colors, textures and contemporary designs, inspired by the memory of Carl Judson's great-grandmother, Mrs. Ella Spencer (1836-1922). In the late 1800s, she was an adept chess master, also apparently the first woman editor of a syndicated chess column. Her column was published in several leading newspapers and the Ladies Home Journal.

The pieces are individually handmade and beautifully finished with felt bottoms to protect the board. Modern sculpture within a familiar cultural context.

 

 

7-Side Hobbit Checkers (or Draughts)

Board games in the Checker family have been around since antiquity – evidence going back 5000 years comes to us from excavations at Ur, in Mesopotamia, and not far behind were the Egyptian Pharaohs. 

As in the days of old, our checkers are hand formed from natural clays. BTW it is said that play with these 7-sided Hobbit Checkers invites Elvish kibitzing, so be on the lookout!

Chess and Checker Boards

Marbles

Even older and even more universal than Checkers, the first marbles were polished round river stones, followed by fired clay and eventually glass. Until 1884, most American marbles were made of hand-rolled clay fired on the floor of salt kilns. Because of the laborious hand process, these marbles were relatively expensive and beyond reach of all but the most well-off children. In 1884 Sam Dyke of Akron, Ohio developed a means of mechanically rolling clay marbles and marble futures plummeted. Following in 1915, mass production of glass marbles was perfected and the rest is history.

Speaking of history, our marbles are made the old-fashioned way by combing different colored clays and rolling by hand, then setting them aside to dry very slowly. Several weeks later, we’ll sprinkle them over the floor of our Groundhog Kiln between all the pots. The resulting variety is pretty mind blowing.

Dominoes 

(coming soon)

7 products
24-piece "Hobbit" Checkers Set
Regular price
$160.00
Sale price
$160.00
Soda Fired Chess Set with 'Pick-up Stick' Relief Design
Regular price
$450.00
Sale price
$450.00
Chess & Checker Board
Regular price
$240.00
Sale price
$240.00
Chess Set 1
Regular price
$450.00
Sale price
$450.00
Chess Set 3
Regular price
$450.00
Sale price
$450.00
Chess Set 4
Regular price
$450.00
Sale price
$450.00
Set of 6 Hand-Rolled Porcelain Marbles
Regular price
$27.00
Sale price
$27.00