Sungka
“Sungka” is a bold and stylized interpretation of the classic mancala board. It doubles as a game board and furniture statement piece. It’s mancala, with a Filipino twist. It was manufactured through casting, woodworking, laser cutting, and sanding.
This project made me fall in love with design, making stuff, and Stanford’s Product Realization Lab.
Tools and Skills Used:
Design - Sketching, Rendering, CAD (Solidworks)
Manufacturing - Sand Casting, Woodworking, Laser Cutting, Sanding
Ideation
Through brainstorming, sketching, and CAD (Solidworks), I developed the idea and design of “Sungka,” my own upscale mancala board.
Prototyping & testing
I then created lots of quick and dirty prototypes to test my designs and assumptions. By prototyping, I learnt a lot about design aspects I did, and didn’t, like. I chose to pursue a design that made the piece feel aesthetically lighter. This was achieved by suspending the metal cups with the wood board, and having their sides show. I also liked the pop of blue color - it worked with the dark wood and silver very well.
Manufacturing
I then started to make the board. First, I had to learn how to turn wood bowl patterns.
I then casted over 30 aluminium cups and bowls from these patterns.
To create the board, I used woodworking and laser cutting. I then finished it with linseed oil and sandpaper. I choose to build my board out of Walnut wood because of it’s beautiful rich, dark color. Also, is polishes nicely!
