Thoughts about Chess by Post

Ideas for creating sketchbook and textile work are emerging.  For the chess game I can see pieced backgrounds, made of perfect or imperfect squares and the notations of the moves stitched over the surface. This presents a few challenges.

One aspect of this project that needs consideration is format and size. Postcards of the “Golden Age” are typically 5 7/16 by 3 7/16 inches, I’ve seen some smaller variations to this, rarely anything larger. That’s a rather small and strange size to work with, dividing either measurement equally is a challenge. Rounding up both measurements to 6 by 4 inches works better for creating a base shape.

The next challenge is the overall surface area is not huge, stitching everything on the postcard onto the fabric shape if I use the 6 x 4 format is going to be too hard on my eyes. Trying to stitch the tiny words will reduce their impact as it would very fine thread. I have a couple of options: make larger pieces based on multiples of 6 x 4 inches, abandon the 6 by 4 idea entirely and only use snippets of the words.

First sketchbook ideas:

The irregular grid has so much energy compared to the regular one - the colour needs work, maybe some printed fabric with either the black or white. Other colours? Then, there’s the text - it’s tiny, and lacks impact. More explorations are needed to get this working.