searching for a sculptor

I want a very high quality Chess board set. I’m prepared to pay between hundreds of dollars, to thousands of dollars, depending on the quality and material used. Right now, I’m putting this ad up casually, but when I return to France, I’ll aggressively search for a talented sculptor.

I want a chess set that resembles the one in Code Geass.

My requirements are:

Resemble the animated series as utterly accurately as possible, no expense spared. I will help with this. I highly suggest you watch the series before starting work.
The black pieces must be a deep, solid black; some imperfections are tolerable if they indicate a high quality material — light tree rings from ebony or blemishes in marble are fine.
The white pieces must be absolutely white and somewhat bright. No tint nor tan. I’m not picky about the material, as long as it’s a high-quality wood or better (marble, ivory, bone, etc)
The most culturally significant piece is the black king.
I value precision and quality, I’m looking for a man with lots of pride who hates making sacrifices. Tiny details, like ratios between the battlement of the rooks must be so precise that they appear perfectly equal to the naked eye.
What I want most is just the pieces, all the quality, attention and rigor goes to the pieces foremost. The board, box, and clock are optional; but if you’d like to make them, I just ask that they are high-quality and resemble the series.
I prefer an analog chess clock with a “wind up” crank. No batteries, no motors. We can make this happen by harvesting a high-quality retail clock and sculpting a case for it.
The rest is your imagination! Have fun with it. I want you to make something that you feel very proud of.

I’m prepared to pay a lot for this. Talk to me. If you use very high quality materials, I’ll pay thousands. If you can use mammoth tusks, I’ll pay over ten thousand.

So here’s what it looks like:

The kings — notice the 3 pointed crown, I insist that the king must be sharp on the tips… sharp enough to cut skin if you press a finger down on it.

The queen, with what looks like a headscarf (or hair) on the back of her head, with two points on the forehead.

A knight. I’ll find better angles later. I’ll have to dig it up from the series because it’s hard to find this one on google images.

Scattered pieces. Note, as a rule in anime, the drawings change during times of emotion. Like a character’s face can get very large or small depending on the emotion. In this case, the board was knocked over, these pieces therefore might not be in perfect proportions. Look to ones like below, or calm scenes, to get the sizes right. But we can exploit scenes like this to get small details — like the small ring carved around the bishops.

Visualization of all the pieces, board, and clock timer.

The theme behind the king piece is the “geass” which is the “power of a king” metaphored in this series as a mystical power coming from the mind — manifested like a bird. This “red bird” symbol is the geass. This is where the points on the king piece are inspired from.

And the geass symbol again, on the forehead of his mystical faerie.

Another feature of the show, that blends into the pieces, is their tall, slender bodies. All the main characters in the show have bodies like this. It’s iconic of the show and important the chess pieces reflect this, they *should* be peculiarly long, tall, and slim. This should be something people notice instantly when looking at the chess board.

A fan rendering of the pieces. We can find this on deviant art, it’s 3D and excellent… The only critiques I’d have is they’re a little too short (especially the king and queen), the circular base is not the same size, and the heights need to be adjusted… for example the knight and rook are the same height.

Another fan render. The heights are much better on this one, nearly perfect. Just the pieces are missing some details, like the “ring” grooves around the base, and detail on the knight’s face.

A lifelike render. It looks real but I’m not sure anyone actually made this. Also many of the pieces are nothing like the show — see the king, for instance. I don’t tolerate these inaccuracies.

This is basically what I want you to make — albeit with the best quality possible.

How Much I’ll Pay

For comparison, normal hand-crafted wooden chess sets cost around $300-$400.

Hobbyist sculptors on etsy and ebay charge similar prices.

Luxury hand crafted wooden chess sets cost between $700-$1400.

And elite, “edge of human reach” quality is up to $13k.

So with that in mind, know that I’ll offer the appropriate price for your work. You can look at the links I made above and review the quality of these boards and their price tags. If you are satisfied with the quality/price ratio, then I think we can easily come to an agreement.

Contact me.