Making The Very Hungry Bear Game (Part 1): Preparing The Board

As a special gift this Christmas my wife and I decided to make a cornhole (or bean bag toss) game. Instead of buying individual gifts for everyone we bought some prizes, wrapped them, distributed them to the winners… and altogether they made up a fun family event.

I created the game based around a very hungry bear and his food; the bean bags, shown in Part 4: Berries, Honey, Flowers, Fish.


THE BOARD: After the board was built and the back primered and painted it was time to transfer (with pencil) the small sketch to the larger game board (using an Artograph projector).

Making The Very Hungry Bear Game (Part 2): Etching

Once the image was penciled in, it was time to etch the outline into the wood using an electric wood-burner. I did this outside (on a very bright day apparently!)

Wood-burned etching complete!

Making The Very Hungry Bear Game (Part 3): Painting

Making The Very Hungry Bear Game (Part 4): Final

After the painting of the board is complete, allowed to dry and varnished the game board is all finished.

Did anyone see my son Rowan? I hope that Very Hungry Bear didn't get him.

Lets PLAY!

Commissioning More Artwork!

My New Year resolution this year is to commission more artwork!

I make artwork. I sell artwork, why not BUY artwork? It’s a great cycle of inspiration for the buyer and artist. Once an artist gets a commission the creative juices start to flow and then… LOVE is created all around! Once the buyer commissions artwork, the anticipation of seeing the final piece(s) rivals a child on Christmas morning. What a great feeling to approach one of your favorite artists and have them create a personalized original just for you!

Like jewelers, artists sell “feelings” and sentiment. With many different artists, working in many different styles and sizes, this makes it easy for any budget. You can literally find an artist to suit your needs. If you’ve never commissioned an artist… give it a shot. If you’re a collector perhaps it’s time to add to your collection.

As a Christmas gift to my wife and son, I commissioned Marisa Haedike ( http://www.creativethursday.com/ ) to create one of her wonderful works. We'll keep the actual artwork private... but lets just say it's very "Cool" and has a lot of bears! Wink Wink.