Looney Labs Icehouse Mailing list Archive

Re: [Icehouse] Zendo Stones

  • FromCarl Worth <cworth@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • DateTue, 27 Feb 2007 10:54:31 -0800
On Tue, 27 Feb 2007 10:33:32 -0800, Christopher Hickman wrote:
> What's the best way to get small black and white stones for marking
> Koans?  Wy wife got some glass "stones" from Williamsburg Pottery,
> but they are twice the size I'd want them, and they aren't
> opaque. I'd like some like the ones in the boxed Zendo. And I've
> eaten all my Christmas M&Ms (green for true, red for false, works
> well, but they only sell those at Christmastime)

I don't know what the original boxed set stones looked like, but I did
spend a fair amount of time exploring every inch of my local craft
store before I found something I was quite happy with.

What I eventually purchased were sets of small beads, (the cheapest
ones ended up being pre-strung on necklaces). The white and brown (no
green was available) ones I got are very thin "flying-saucer" shaped
pieces.

They also didn't have black available in that shape, so I ended up
getting some tiny tear-drop shaped beads instead. At first I was
really dissatisfied that the black markers didn't have the same shape
as the white ones, but I quickly took a liking to that. And the
tear-drop shaped markers do have a tremendous benefit in being able to
actually point at the relevant koan. I'm almost tempted to go look for
white beads of the same shape now.

About the only thing that isn't perfect about the "stones" I've got is
that they do have tiny holes drilled through them. My wife says that
the holes are really unnoticeable---but she also laughed at me for
putting so much thought and work into finding perfect markers for this
game anyway.

Maybe I'll take some photos of a game in progress here and try to get
them on the wiki, (I've already taken some photos of my pyramid carry
case for the very purpose of posting in on the wiki, but I haven't
quite gotten around to doing that yet).

-Carl

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