My Latest Obsession - Scrabble Tiles

I've gotten a number of Scrabble tiles from garage sales. They've been lurking in my printer's cabinet drawers waiting for inspiration. A few days ago, an idea struck me.  Last summer, I went on a paper marbling binge. I can only marble part of the year because I have to do it outside and the temps need to be between 70 degrees and 90 degrees for greatest success. Around here that's fairly limiting - at least during daylight. So when I had some nice weather I went mad marbling everything. First I did plain paper, then I started marbling pages from books I had collected.

So it occurred to me that these pages might look great on Scrabble tiles. Here's what I ended up with after working obsessively for days.

Here's a closer look at the whole lot. I really love old typography.You can see that I used a number of different materials for my marbling.

Here is an example of an old envelope from the 1920's. Postage was only two cents! I marbled the envelope and here it is in little sections. I love the look.

These were made from the letters that came with the envelopes. Don't you love that people used to write letters? What a lost art. 

For some reason, these were very difficult to photograph. The camera seemed insist on focusing on the book cover instead of the tiles even though I told it to focus on the tile.

These were made from the pages of a book on mechanics from the 1800's. I love the graphic look of the illustrations.

Here are some examples of the backs of the tiles. I used the plain paper from the edges of the book pages on the backs. You can see some of the Scrabble letters. After a while, I learned to not press down the paper on the center of the tile.

Next I want to spray them with artist's varnish to protect them, but I need warmer weather for that. I am also trying to decide whether to solder around the edges. Then I get to make jewelry - what fun! My head is spinning with ideas.