Fellowship of the Things

If you have pre-sanded blanks, this step may not be necessary.

Recommendation: These puzzle cubes are meant for younger children, so try to have a a few different background colours in your designs. This will make it less challenging to solve.

Ideas:

• SCA arms (yellow background with a green laurel wreath)

• Kingdom populace badge

• Branch populace badges

• Awards, households badges, or other motifs that are recognizable for the target population

• Generic heraldic designs

Put down a base layer of white on all faces before painting the background colours. Many craft paints are slightly transparent, so a layer of white will keep the wood grain from showing through and distorting or muddying the colour you wanted, while white will brighten your colours and bring out their vibrancy.

Recommendation: If you have two designs with the same background colour, plan to have them on opposite cube faces.

Take your nine cubes and set them into a 3 x 3 grid. Secure them together by wrapping a small elastic band around the outside.

Transfer your design to the puzzle face by placing a sheet of transfer paper between the puzzle and your design, then simply tracing your design with a pencil, pen, or any rigid tool.

Paint while the cube is still secured by the elastic, but avoid smushing paint into the cracks between the individual pieces.

Once you have completed painting this face, remove the elastic and touch up the edges of each individual block, then separate and set aside to dry completely.

DO NOT continue until your previous side has dried thoroughly. If the paint is still damp, the pressure of the elastic will stick the pieces together and when pulled apart, it will damage your design.

When doing multiple puzzles cubes at once, be very careful to keep the pieces for each cube together. If they get mixed up, it is very difficult and frustrating to get them all back in the right sets.

Once completely dry, place all nine pieces of your puzzle cube into a small drawstring bag.

Don't forget to add a tag!

Many groups (kingdoms, principalities, baronies, etc) have registered badges for their awards. I recommend checking out your target group's website or discussion groups for a description of awards and their associated badges. If only the blazon (description) of the badge is available, you can reach out to your local College of Heralds for assistance.

When using registered badges, you do have some lee-way in artistic license, but I recommend that unless you are very familiar with the group and their culture, that you use the art provided. It is also important to use the proper colours as registered.