Tile dominos

Leggi questo post in: Italiano

something that i love about italian beaches: the pieces of sea-washed tiles that you find in the sand. they’ve always fascinated me for their beauty. the top of the top are the ones that are colored on one side (like this “treasure map”), but i find even the plain ones gorgeous.

i also really like dominoes. i find their shape, their simplicity quite elegant. when i saw this pin, i knew i’d have to do it too: dominoes made from flat rocks. so one gorgeous day this past may, when we went to the beach at cetara, i decided to collect some rocks to make them. cetara is on the amalfi coast, very close to vietri sul mare, which is famous for its tiles and ceramics. apparently they through extra broken pieces in the sea, because the beach was chock-full of these gorgeous fragments. my daughter and i got to work picking up pieces of more or less the right size. at home, i washed them and admired them. they were so lovely that i decided to leave them their natural colors instead of painting them black.

i got to work. first i separated them by color: the colored ones, the darker ones, and the lighter ones. then i split each color up by size and ended up with 9 sets of 28 more or less homogenous pieces each. i gave the rest to my little girl (and she painted quite a few of them this day and others as well). then i got out some white acrylic paint and made my dots (with the tip of the paintbrush) and the stripes. i did them by placing them in order, but if you need it, here’s a diagram with the 28 pieces to make.

then for the baggies. i used up some pieces of fabric left over from other projects, which is why they’re different sizes.

i boxed the bottom corners to hold the pieces better. (edit: here’s my tutorial on boxing corners!)

then for the drawstring. remember that awful rushed job i did for the laundry bags? i told you that i was capable of doing them much better, and here’s the proof! for anyone who needs it, here is a very clear tutorial on how to sew drawstring bags.

here are the bags, full of beautiful, natural domino sets, ready to be given to various loved little ones of ours!

i’d wanted to include a sheet with the official rules of dominoes. five years ago, a friend taught me how to play by keeping track of points. i didn’t even know that you could play like that, with a point system. i thought it was just whoever got rid of his pieces first wins. sure, you can play like that, but i really enjoyed it with points. i started looking for the rules online just to find out that there are a ridiculous number of official rules of different versions of the game. and just look here… and those are just “the basics”! looks pretty complicated to me!

but who really cares? play however you like… the important thing is to have fun! and with these sets, you’ll do that for sure!

27 thoughts on “Tile dominos”

  1. E' bellissimo Lisa…mi incanto sempre a guardare i tuoi lavori…ma la prossima volta che vieni a Vietri o a Cetara, o perchè no, anche a Cava De' Tirreni, fammi sapere, così prendiamo un caffè insieme!
    Di questi ciottoli ne ho anche io tanti, magari se riesco a capire per bene le regole un domino lo preparo anche io!
    Bacioni…

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  2. What a beautiful idea 🙂
    When I was little, my family used to spend summer holidays in France and Italy, and I remember picking up those pottery shards! I adored them, they were so pretty.
    Since I seem to have lost all of them over the years, I guess that means I need to return to Italy one day to pick up new ones.

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  3. mi farebbe piacere! ma il fatto è che di solito decidiamo di andare nei posti all'ultimo momento. ma ti faccio sapere la prossima volta! 🙂

    poi, le regole del domino non devono essere difficili. basta mettere insieme i punti uguali, anche senza fare la gara, e i bimbi si divertono! (e anche gli adulti con un po' di regole in più!)

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  4. Che belle! Ma quante ne hai trovate fortunella?
    Ottimo e soprattutto divertente riciclo! Pure ai sacchettini hai pensato.
    Vi divertirete un sacco a giocarci! Per me è sempre stato un gioco sconosciuto, ma conto di rifarmi appena Alessio cresce.

    P.s: grazie per il commento sulle crostatine! Ti consiglio di fare prima quelle di farro. Sinceramente mi hanno convinto di più perchè meno rustiche e poi la ricetta per entrambe è molto simile.

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  5. ho fatto 9 set e ce n'erano altri rimasti, quindi direi quasi 300! e mica erano tutti quelli che abbiamo visto sulla spiaggia. era coperta!

    grazie per il consiglio sulle crostatine! 🙂 ti faccio sapere!

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  6. Bellissima idea…. li voglio anch'io tutte quelle fantastiche piastrelle!!!
    genietto!!!

    Ho scoperto proprio questa mattina l'altro tuo blog… ma sei incredibile!!! Ti faccio i miei complimenti più sinceri!! Sei una forza!!
    e ti aggiungo anche nei miei link reciclosi!! non so perchè non l'ho fatto prima… ma io sono distrattona!!
    Ciao Baci
    Clod

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  7. veramente bellissimo, anche io da piccola collezionavo le mattonelle lavorate dal mare come pure i pezzi di vetro modellati…. vorrei provare anche io a fare questo domino…. devo solo ribaltare la cantina per ritrovare la mia collezione perduta!!

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  8. Bellissimi. Sia il domino che i sacchetti. Te li pinno su Pinterest sia nella lavagna sassi che in quella Pin It.
    E poi ho letto che sei di Napoli…
    Mio padre ha vissuto al Vomero e ho una gran voglia di tornare a passeggiare a Mergellina, a mangiare i fritti al parco della Floridiana e a perdermi nei quartieri Spagnoli.

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  9. ciao mammozza! veramente, sono dagli stati uniti, abitavo a napoli per 6 anni e da 5 abito in zona vesuviana. certo, napoli è un posto molto suggestivo, ma viverci tutti i giorno ti può far impazzire!

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