The full set on a maple and walnut board, red cards on the near side and black on the far side

Family of Form

Six tops a hand can read.

Identical frames cannot be told apart by touch.

Six tops a hand can read. One card you can swap.

The concrete King with a red acrylic card

Pull the card.
Change the set.

King, Red acrylic

Tops by touch.

Eyes on the board, hand on the piece.

  1. Knight96.3 mm
  2. King95.1 mm
  3. Queen90 mm
  4. Bishop89.8 mm
  5. Pawn87 mm
  6. Rook86 mm

Two sides.

One side red, one side black.

The six concrete frames standing in a row, each with a red acrylic card
The same six frames from the same camera, each with a black acrylic card

Independent, and still a family.

Dimensions.

95.1 90 89.8 96.3 86 87 50 1238 56 18 Card 2 Slot 2.2
King, millimetres
Height, frame volume and mass of each piece, tallest first
PieceHeightFrameMass
96.3 mm37.0 cm³≈85 g
95.1 mm33.0 cm³≈76 g
90 mm31.7 cm³≈73 g
89.8 mm32.1 cm³≈74 g
87 mm32.5 cm³≈75 g
86 mm33.9 cm³≈78 g

Pick a piece to draw it. Frame volume from CAD. Mass ≈ at 2.3 g/cm³.

Pieces modelled
16 + 16
Card
40 × 60 × 2 mm
Each frame
≈73 to 85 g
Board
500 × 500 × 30 mm
A game in progress seen from above and to one side: red and black pieces off their starting squares on the maple and walnut board, a hand lifting a black piece, two taken pieces beside the board
A hand lifting the red knight by its top above the board
The King from the front: its red card halfway out of the open side of the frame, the post on the other side solid
Two hands sliding a black card into the open side of the concrete frame, the red card it replaces lying on the table
Five of the frames with black acrylic cards on a pale ground

Concrete. Uncontrollable.

Acrylic. Absolute precision.

As cast.

The six finished pieces in cast concrete with red acrylic cards, photographed in a row
The Queen in cast concrete with its red card, standing on a white desk
Close view of the cast surface: fine air pockets in the concrete, the red card at its edge

Process

  1. Pen sketch of six tall stems topped with a sun, a moon, a candle and stars
  2. Pen sketch of a playing card turned into a thick C-shaped frame with a crown inside, and five smaller frames beside it
  3. Pen sketches of six named frames, King to Pawn, in perspective and from the front
  4. Six cardboard frames standing on a paper chessboard
  5. A hand gripping a cardboard frame above a paper chessboard
  6. Grey CAD models of the six frames in a row, each top profile circled
  7. Grey CAD view into the open side of the frame, a slot running along its top and foot
  8. Six white 3D prints of the frames holding clear cards
  9. A concrete King with a red card standing among broken casts

Read by hand, not by eye.

Monolith

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