A felted chess Set April 13, 2015 00:00

As mentioned in the previous post we were invited to create an art piece for the gallery at Vogue Knitting Live in NYC.  We decided to create a felted chess set, with the pieces consisting of Gnomes (obviously) vs. Vikings. 

 
Viking King and Queen

 
Gnome King and Queen

We wanted the set to be larger than life so we chose to make it a 4ft. x 4ft. board with the pieces averaging around 12-14inches tall.  It was a challenge to create pieces that people would be able to recognize as their traditional counterparts. Mushrooms were an obvious choice for the pawns on the gnome side,  as were a gnome king and queen and viking king and queen.  Bishops presented a bit of a representation challenge, being settled with tree gnomes on the gnome side and howling wolves on the viking side.

Gnome Bishops

Viking Bishops

Viking dragon riders and gnome bear riders were fun to make for the knights. 

Viking Knights

Gnome Knights

The most frequently asked questions about building this felted chess set were: How long did it take?  Did you each make a side?  Can i make a move?  We spent a total of about 200 hours working on the set, and were thrilled with the results!  We both worked on both sides, though one of us made each set of companion figures (ie I made both wolf bishops on the viking side and gnome king and queen, Jen made both dragon rider knights and the viking king and queen.  We both spent many hours making mushroom and rock monster pawns! We did let people (carefully) play the game both in NY and in Seattle - boy are there are a lot of chess enthusiasts out there!!  Most were thrilled that the set was complete with a chess clock and and a gnome time keeper!

New ideas for new large scale art pieces are always swirling around.....stay tuned....

INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS!!! April 10, 2015 12:52 1 Comment

SO Going Gnome's big news is that we have the first of 4 needle felting instructional videos being released later this month (APRIL 2015)!! The videos are being produced and distributed by F+W Interweave and will be available on craftdaily.com, as well as in the Interweave store.  Earlier this year we flew out to Fort Collins Colorado for the video shoot.  We had an amazing time, the crew at Interweave are amazing to work with, it was a blast! The 4 videos are

Mini Gnome
Mini Mushroom House
Owl Babies
Sleeping Fox

The videos are going to be for sale and paired with our kits so you can felt right along with the instructions using our amazing kits.  We will have links to the videos here on our website as soon as they are released so don't forget to check back soon :)

Here are some pictures from our trip out to Fort Collins.......

During filming: Mini Mushroom House

This sweetie was thrilled to be included on the set with her gnome friends

Filming videos is tiring!

All packed up and ready for the trip home.....