lavender lass - That garden is lovely. Is this what is known as an inspiration picture? Thank you for sharing. - Marylee

I hope it is just to look at as pieces look very heavy & you would sure get a workout(or work-up at hospital)moving those pieces. It sure does look like a great spot to sit & read a book or have a nice cool glass of tea on a nice day. Jan

Wow that is so neat love that garden its just beauiful.I need to learn how to play hehe.
Angie

Here is a link that might be useful: Dont throw that away 1#

I have seen that or something similar before and thought it was so cool. Since I don't know how to play chess, I'd have to make a checkerboard. I imagine that wouldn't be too hard with some sort of light disks or plates. Looks like fun!

Use Frisbees- those are pretty flat & could be painted any colors you wanted. So would make a great checkerboard, Luna! Jan

Lavendar lass, thanks so much for posting that. What a lovely garden and private little chess place. It looks timeless. I hope whoevers' picture it is doesn't mind me making it my desktop for a while (it's such a nice big picture, too, it takes up the whole screen I can go there while waiting for things to download :)
Really inspirational. It would be fun to work on. I wish I could see their chess pcs better. Is that St. Francis on the right with a Chinese Goddess as queen ? Are those turtles or little skulls as pawns? Looks like squirrels and birds on the other side.

It would work with checkers too.

I'm finding my own garden more and more is divided into small areas like that. You can fit a lot more ideas/junk in that way, lol. I really love this, would love to see it at different times of the day. Thanks.
Donna

Marylee- Yes, I would consider this an inspiration picture, because it's given me ideas, for my own garden :)

Donna- I found this picture, while looking for kitchen garden images, on the Internet. It does look like St. Francis, in fact, I think I've seen many of these garden statues at some local stores...and I don't think they're that heavy. They look like cement, but they're much lighter.

Sunny- Frisbees would be a fun idea, for checkers!

Luna and Angie- I'm not a great chess player, myself, but it would be fun to learn. This would be great to get kids interested, too. :)

I love this! I've always been fascinated by large scale garden chess. I've seen it in parks in big cities too. I don't play either but if it was in the garden I might!
I have a lamp that would be a perfect pawn. Wouldn't it be fun gathering/and or making the pieces for the set?
Kathy

They do sell chess sets for outdoors, our downtown park has some and also the next town over too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chess sets

this is one for sale on ebay for $5,000!
I don't know what it is made out of, but it made me think that the pieces could be made out of plywood cutouts (2 for each piece), notched and slid together at right angles so they stand up.
Kathy

Here is a link that might be useful: Yard chess set on ebay

How about buying some of the inexpensive small garden statues the dollar stores carry and then spray painting them two different solid colors? Like small frogs for the pawns, and then maybe some miss/mister type companion pieces they sometimes have (like female and male rabbits) for queen/king and so on? Betcha could find some pretty cute things.

Kirkus post on glass insulators has given me another idea for chess pieces. Since they come in different sizes and shapes would probably be feasible to assemble a set in green and another in clear with the smaller skinny ones for the pawns and then designate other sizes shapes for the rest of the pieces. You could also attach a metal charm, etc. with wire around the non-pawn piece for easier visual of what each piece is.

My dad was a lineman for the power company and used to have boxes of the old insulators. Unfortunately, I think he ended up dumping most in an old cistern when they moved to their current house. Somewhere I have a few of them. One of each shape I think.

On CL in my area I see several posts with insulators for sale. And one has clear & green. :) Gonna seriously think about this chess set idea. I think they'd be really pretty sitting on a small paver chess board.

Thanks for this post...that does look cool...but doesn't look like you really should "play" with them! LOL!

Does inspire me (like luna suggested) for a "checker board" & set ... then gr'kids could play to! TFS! Jeanne S.

Gosh, concreteprimroses, you would think for 5 grand they would at least tell you what it's made of, lol. I wonder if they're selling many of those...

See the stake in the middle of the flowers in the round flower bed in back? When I first saw it I thought it looked familiar and it finally dawned on me. I think it's a sprinkler like one of these, in the link I attached here. (If you look closely you can see where the water has sprayed on the bricks and the benches)

Now wouldn't that be pretty.

Here is a link that might be useful: decorative sprinkler yard art

I went to some antique shops in the neighboring town today. Snooped out what I could find for clear/green insulators for my chess set idea above. Found nearly enough clear ones which I thought might be harder since people don't really collect the newer clear ones. Didn't buy any yet. One shop owner has some more at home so I'm gonna check back in a couple weeks and hopefully she'll have brought them in. For sure they had enough smaller clear ones for the 8 pawns. I figure for the queen/king I'll stack/glue a couple today. Like 2 larger together for the king and then maybe a big with little on top for the queen.

All I bought was 5 clear plates at $1 each and a $1 green covered dish thing for totems. Must have a huge glass supply now. I've still got boxes in 3 vehicles I've not brought in the house yet. :-O

lavender lass, thanks for posting this wonderful picture. What a peaceful spot and such a beautiful antique looking chess garden. It looks like the white pawns are bird statues, maybe doves, while the dark grey appear to be frogs. This is truly an inspiration.

3 kittens, how sad that much of your dad's collection of insulators ended up destroyed. I'm glad that you salvaged a few. Look forward to seeing your outdoor garden chess board with insulator pieces.

Possessing the "bad math gene" as I do, I've never been able to think more than 3 moves ahead in a chess game and I always get trapped!