Completed Senet Board

Having put the mini senet board aside for a time as I contemplated just how on earth I was going to make the bitty pieces, I finally got back to it the other night and finished it off. I ended up getting a 5/16 dowel and filing the pieces down to the right size and shape, then painted them up. The tricky part was the (working!) bolt, which is authentic to the real ones--the bolt is held in place by two loops of gold (well, 'gold') wire, but slides to fit into the third wire loop on the body of the box. Two raised bits in the middle of the bolt keep it from falling out altogether. I don't know how well it's going to hold up, as I had to use Elmer's glue, which probably isn't going to stick to the metal. But all the superglue I could find had hardened up to little tubes of solid plastic. But for now, it works. Check this out:

Closed, with the bolt slid to the right:

And open, with it slid to the left, enabling the drawer to slide out:

The drawer full of the bitty pieces, and the throwing sticks:

A close up:

And here it is all set up, with the pieces alternating. It would be entirely possible to play this set, and not only because there are some playable rules out there (I've played senet myself plenty of times, with the 1:1 set I made years back); the pieces and throwing sticks are all separate. Of course you'd have to be Joe's size, and/or use tweezers, and/or manage not to breathe on it while playing, but hey.

And here's Joe, giving it a shot. Finally, that I'm-crushing-your-head right hand of his is useful for something.

I really am very pleased with how this came out. Not bad for my first try at making something that small!

Senet Board Work-in-Progress

So here's something I've started for Joe: a one-sixth scale senet board.

What the heck is that? I hear you ask.

Well, one of my other interests is ancient Egypt, and senet is a game that was very popular in that culture. It had all kinds of spiritual significance in later times, being taken as a symbol for the perilous journey the Soul makes after death to get to the Afterlife; but it was also enjoyed as just a game.

For this little board I combined two of the senet boards found in Tutankhamun's tomb. I used the dimensions from the large ebony and ivory one, shown here:

That one's got a legged stand it sits on; I didn't want the stand, so I just made the box part.

For the decoration I used another board, this one in stained ivory with floral decoration. I always liked this one (sorry the picture is so small; there are very few color pictures of this one out there):

I got the box itself made and decorated; I still have to make the drawer and the tiny little pieces. I have made the throwing sticks, used to determine the moves, like dice. I carved those out of matchsticks, like I did for the lattice on the top (and the bottom side, which has another game called 'twenty squares' on it). So here's what my little version looks like so far:

And the decoration on the end, which I don't think the original has, as I believe it has a drawer at each end. I'm just going to make one long drawer in it (which is known from other senet boards), so put the same motif on the end:

I made it out of matboard, and it's surprisingly sturdy. I don't remember the exact measurements but at one-sixth scale it's something like a little shy of three inches.

I'll post more when I get it finished.