Chess board with owls in black and white porcelain

When an organisation named "Uilenspel" (owls' play / owls' game) from Ghent, Belgium asked me to make something which could be auctioned at a art fair to support their work, I had a chess set in my mind straight away, the pieces in the shape of owls. 

Here it is, I worked on it over many weeks, but if you add up all the hours it's about weeks worth of work, I guess. It was a joy to make. The board is porcelain too, on a wooden base with an oak frame. 

Each piece is different and each is made by hand, I used no moulds at all.

see the little mouse hiding under the kings cloak, and an elf on the tree stump of the queen

A bishop is not the same in Dutch, there it's called a runner /walker as a messenger would, hence the owls on stilts, so it can take big steps.

I loved adding all the quirky details, an elf here, a leprechaun there, there's several mice and a bird. 
If you want to see more pictures, head over to my flickr page.
If you want to know more about the auction and the organisation, I added that info to the blogpost about the story bowl made for the same auction.