How to Make a Senet Board

Covering the box

Prepare the workspace. It's recommended that you put newspaper on your working space, to protect it from glue and paint.

Place the shoe box (with its lid) on a flat work surface. Wrap it with newspaper, making sure to cover every little bit of the box. Make sure that the newspaper sits tightly, then stick it down with some tape.

Wrap one more layer of newspaper around the box and secure with some tape.

Tear the paper towels into strips. Soak the strips in the tub of PVA. Drape the soaked strips over all parts of the box until it is fully covered. Let it stand to air dry.

Painting the box

Make the paint color. Once the paper strips have dried, mix the yellow and brown paint on the palette to get a uniform, nice shade of yellow-brown/light brown colour. This might take a while, so keep combining until you like the color.

Paint the box. Using the paintbrush, apply the light brown paint on one face of the box at a time. Leave in a safe place with sunlight to air dry.

Making the Senet board

Once the paint has dried, begin adding the board markings. Rule three rows and 10 columns on one broad side of the box, using a pencil.

Go over the pencil lines with a black pen or felt-tip marker. Keep using a ruler to keep your lines straight.

Draw the symbols. With pencil, draw in the following symbols: In the second/middle row, sixth column from left, draw an ankh sign (symbol of life). In the last row, sixth column from left, draw a bird in the Ancient Egyptian style. In the last row, seventh column from left, draw three parallel waves. In the last row, eighth column from left, draw three dots (like an upside down "therefore" symbol). In the last row, ninth column from left, draw an eye of Horus.

Go over the penciled in symbols in paint. Using a thin paintbrush, paint over the ankh symbol in blue paint, the bird in red, the waves and the dots in blue and the eye of Horus in red.

Decorate the sides of the box with ancient Egyptian symbols and designs. Once done, the Senet game board is now ready for playing Senet.