My grandmother, whom we call Nana, just turned 90.
No easy feat, so I decided that I had to make her something amazing for her birthday gift.
She’s really into Rummikub, so I made her a custom Rummikub set.
A few important notes:
There are 104 standard tiles + 2 jokers.
The front of a standard tile usually has the number plus a symbol below it that helps everyone know which side is up. Don’t forget that it’s hard to tell a 6 from a 9 otherwise.
The #1 Nana symbol I used is actually a vectorized image of a necklace that she wears everyday. The necklace itself was a gift from many years ago.
My Nana is super proud of her family. So, I engraved the names of all her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren on the back of all the tiles.
Turns our that painting the tiles was a real pain. I first tried nail polish, but the color didn’t pop enough. I ended up using spray paint and made a custom jig out of MDF to make painting the tiles easier. Despite leaving the masking on before painting, some of the paint still seeped through. So, I ended up having to sand all of the tiles. Not fun.
I came up with a new method that I would use on the NEXT Rummikub set, but I haven’t implemented yet.
For the box, I cheated slightly. I bought a wood Rummikub set and just engraved the #1 Nana symbol on all the tile racks. Because the tile racks also serve as the lid, it looks like I engraved the box itself. I got lucky that all the tiles fit. If I do remake another set, I’d make the tiles 0.5mm less tall so they fit into the box less snug.
For the jokers, I engraved a picture of my son and called it “Haiden the Jokester” instead of joker. Also, Rummikub is supposed to have 2x jokers. I included 4x because the joker is my favorite piece. I figured that if she’s using her own set, she’s free to make up her own rules, right? As long as everyone agrees at the start of the game, everyone has the advantage and it’s not cheating.
My Nana LOVES her gift. That makes me very happy.
Here are the results:
I have memories of playing rummikub with my own grandmother during the family reunions. She went “home” shortly after my daughter was born while in her 80’s. This post brought back wonderful memories. Thank you!
I am happy to provide the file,
But I must point out that editing that file is more work than creating a new one yourself.
You’ll have to replace #1 Nana 144 times!
Rummikub is a rectangle with rounded edges.
The time consuming thing isn’t making the file; it’s figuring out how to mask the parts successfully for painting.
I’ll upload my file when I get to a computer.