I found this medieval style chess set at a thrift store–what a score! It made for a fun Christmas gift for son number two. It’s plastic but the pieces are substantial–the queen is about four and a half inches tall and so elegant, don’t you think? Love her hat (crown). Tuyen had a college art professor, Mark Grote, who did a series of sculptures of medieval hats inspired by the quirky hats in various paintings by Renaissance artist Piero Della Francesca from the 1400s. What a fun project! Grote’s hats are big like the size of car tires. I think they are paper mache but not positive. You can see them at his website http://www.markgrote.com –just click on projects and then on hats. If you are curious. My queen was drawn with colored pencil on tinted pastel paper which is really too textured for a small drawing like this. It’s more sketchy than I planned. I think I’ll stick to smooth paper for the next one. The black knight!