Four Seasons chess set - summer

Early this year, I decided to create a board and pieces for Four Seasons chess, and do that in such a way that the entire process would be spread over four seasons. At the end of the spring phase, I had made the basic board. That basic board had very broad edges, and my plan was to collect leaves from various trees over the summer, dry-press those leaves and attach them to the edges of the board.

I collected leaves from several tree species in my neighbourhood, trying to capture variety in shape, size and colour. Clockwise from top left, these were: oak, japanese maple, birch and beech.

Played around with different arrangements, until I was happy. And then I glued the leaves to the board.

I do think the board looks nice like this!

No prices for guessing what the next phase will be; you'll get the first hint of what the pieces will look like at the end of autumn!