Easily the most iconic part of the board, the lid has a relief sculpture inlayed into a piece of wood that is cut in half laterally.

My method was to sculpt the detail into a 5mm tall, flat piece of polymer clay (super sculpy) which is then baked before having a silicone mould made of it. Resin casts can then be pulled from the mould. On the receiving end of this cast is a 413mm by 310mm piece of wood (in this case pine) that has the shape of the resin plate routed into it. The face plate is then glued in place and the whole thing is precariously sawn in half.

Lets begin.

Roll out your chosen clay into a shiny pancake, trying to maintain a 5 mil height. For me this took about 2 lbs of clay. When your slab is big enough to fit your design, square off the edges with a steel rule and a stanley knife.

DCIM120GOPRO DCIM120GOPRO DCIM122GOPRO

Now you need to trace your design onto the clay. Take a full size print out of the inlay and put it on top of your blank slab. You can use pins to secure your deign but I found the friction enough to hold it in place.

Using a craft knife, trace the design onto the clay. You want to slice through the paper but not completely through the clay, find a happy medium.

Be aware that only lines you slice can be used as guides, include anything you think you’ll need reference for when sculpting.

And now the fun begins. Begin to sculpt in all of the details on the plate. Take your time and use reference pictures as often as you can.

I used a set of micro wood chisels when sculpting to give the look of a wooden relief carving.

Once this stage is finished, the clay can be baked per the manufactures instructions. A simple dump mould can then be fashioned from RTV silicone, and resin casts taken.

This part of the puzzle is then ready to be fitted into a piece of wood.

The Game Board follows the same process as this, wherein a silicone dump mould is taken of a slab of sculpey.

DCIM122GOPRO DCIM122GOPRO

And that’s it for these quite similar builds. They were a bit slow going but the sculpting was peaceful and relaxing.

These casts are available on My Etsy

I think next time we’ll look at the recurring carvings on the border pieces. It will be interesting to work in wood for a change.

Until then Readers, goodbye and make it easy.