Robert Ironside writes:
I’ve been a Tolkien fan all my life and have carved a couple of sets in the past on this theme but I like to think that this is the best yet.
The chess set is hand carved out of Basswood [Limewood] and took me almost two months of almost solid carving [even weekends] to finish. No patterns are used or templates. I just start carving and see what happens [my approach]. I’ve read the books a number of times [lost count after 4] and just try different renderings of the characters I’ve known in my mind for 30 years [i’m 41].
