Monday, January 4, 2016

You can't find it when you need it leads to making your own.

During a family visit, I wanted to teach them a new game -- actually one of my favorite party games -- called Tripoley.  I searched all over my home looking for this game and realized that I didn't have it anymore.

Thus started my journey to find that game, I drove over to local stores and they didn't have any available. Okay, cool, I'll drive over to next town and see if the toy store has it... to no avail.  Okay, let me try the next town over and drive to the bookstore and see if they have it at their board game area -- yet again, to no avail.  I hit several stores searching for it and every time I struck out.

I returned home and searched again for anything remotely like this game. I finally found a plastic  version, that was close enough.


We managed to play the game.  The kids took awhile to learn it since they had never played Poker or Michigan Rummy, but soon after they were getting quite good at making poker faces.  We had much fun.

After their visit ended, I thought of ordering the game online. I searched for it and found them but it was mostly retro board games and the quality of the game was "there".  After talking with Ron, we felt that it was better to make our own version of this game.  We have the skills, tools, and materials to make it.   Ron took on the part of making the wood design and cutting while I focused on making the inlay design, painting, and assembling the final board.  Here's our first prototype:


We spent days talking about ways to improve it.  To make it more special, more unique, and then we had an "aha" moment -- why not give it a more casino look?


Yeap, that's me hard at work making this lovely Tripoley handmade card board game.  Of course, I do wear a mask when working with any type of adhesive.  We take pride in the work we do.  Here's the finished Tripoley card board game:


Do you see the kitty?   Upon closer look you'll see that I'm a kitty lover... couldn't help myself.


Of course, that meant more work, but the end result is impressive. We wanted this design to last and look amazing in person.  I posted two photos of it in Instagram.  Here's one of them:


And soon after I had people approaching me to make one for them.  Since then I've made a few more and have it available at my Etsy store:  Sybarite Studio / Handmade Tripoley Card Board Game

A special " THANK YOU " for my fans.  Your support makes a world of difference.