Porcelain chess figures based on Agatha Christie’s ‘Evil Under the Sun’

Powderham Castle, 24 July – 30 August 2020 (Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays only)

Method:

After sourcing Royal Porcelain from a mail order supplier, I started making 20 Poirot pawns (2 each colour for spares). I weighed an ideal amount and worked out how big they should be, based on a 64 x 4cm square standard chess board. I found a cardboard toilet roll tube was an ideal diameter to measure each piece from, so they didn’t touch each other on the board. I used 40g for the plinth/body, 30g for the head and 18g for his hat (88g). I wanted Poirot to look comical and each piece a slightly different character – open mouthed in amazement and dressed in a suit. There were two memorable films made of this title – one with Peter Ustinov in a cream suit and one with David Suchet in black.

The other pieces I weighed at 90g and the King and Queen at 100g. I started shaping these 16 pieces into Henry Moore-like figures to add features later, as the porcelain was drying very quickly and I wanted to shape them all in one session (an 8 hour day). When bone dry, I used needle files to sculpt details, based on stills from the films (another 8 hour day!).

After dusting off, I used underglaze ceramic paints before bisque firing them. Then once out of the kiln, I dipped them in transparent glaze for the final (stoneware) firing. Once they’d cooled down, I added acrylic and enamel paint for the final details (faces, etc.) and found some glittery clear nail varnish to paint over the Queens’ dresses/crowns to make them appear sparkly.