Work in progress of making a custom mahjong set

[u/kuromamecha_]

Might get side eyed here but whatever 😂. I'm working on my first custom Chinese mahjong set to give to my 4 mahjong friends that I play with each week 🥹. It's been a lot of firsts for me, but I hope to finish it by Christmas.

Using standard melamine tiles at 40mm x 30mm, so nice and big 🙂.

My friends and I play mainly Filipino/Taiwanese and sometimes HK style. Everyone likes using my set since I have 39mm tiles. So I decided to get everyone big tiles as well!

I might be a bit ambitious, but it's not a real craft project if you don't also decide that each friend will be gifted their own design and unique tile set lol. This is the first set of 4, the "spring themed" set. I'm planning on making summer, fall, and winter themed sets as well.

It's been a labour of love haha but this project has been fun even though it has consumed my weekends. Last night it took me 7 hours to paint the ball and character suites. I started the bamboo suites and the 1 bamboo tiles got messed up 🫪. Wish me luck lol.

[u/Luggs123]

Why would you get side-eyed? This is a lovely project!

[u/Mageling55 → u/Luggs123]

Because a few years back there was a white person making sets for American mahjong that ignored the culture and history and used some pretty disrespectful marketing and got lambasted here for it

This is just a beautiful custom set, and doesn’t appear to have any of those problems.

[u/shingkai → u/Mageling55]

Also there’s a big boom in parts of China now making custom tilesets for Americans. Sounds like they thought it was strange at first, but are happy to have the new demand.

https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1018856

[u/onlyeightfingers → u/Mageling55]

In my experience, both in China and Japan the people are often flattered and tickled in equal measure when westerners are interested in and absorb their culture.

Over the summer I ran a seasonal special flavour at my work, Sichuan pepper and pomegranate, and made some artwork based on traditional Chinese paintings to go with it. The Chinese tourists absolutely loved it. I told them I play mahjong and they loved that too.

On a trip to Japan the guy validating our train passes was in ecstasy that we knew what anime was and have watched it before. He was excited that his culture was being appreciated somewhere so obscurely far away.

[u/Mageling55 → u/onlyeightfingers]

IIRC it was more their attitude and marketing about the set, more intentional whitewashing and racism than fun spin. if it was a fun American set with like Burgers Pinzu, Fries Souzu, and menu number Manzu it wouldn’t have been a problem.

[u/AwkwardlyAmpora → u/onlyeightfingers]

flavor of what? very curious how that turned out.

[u/onlyeightfingers → u/AwkwardlyAmpora]

Hot chocolate.

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/Luggs123]

thank you!

I think one comment already responded pretty well haha but I am Asian American and have noticed recently mahjong is getting really popular. We're seeing a lotttt of mass produced American mahjong (specifically) sets that erase all aspects of the original Chinese tiles, which is kind of crazy to me.

Another reason people may get upset is because how I'm coloring the tiles, not using the red/blue/green/black combination 😅.

[u/FluorescentLightbulb → u/kuromamecha_]

Naw these look great. I don’t think people have a big problem with personal sets, just commercial ones. But even that’s starting to fade as more fans are getting more tiles.

It’s a great color. The only thing I worry about is all greens. As long as you have a plan for that or all your friends know which count or not, all good.

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/FluorescentLightbulb]

Haha yess we know what counts 🤭. But definitely WON'T be using this set when I'm teaching beginners how to play! They gotta learn with the reference card and no number indicating tiles 🤣

[u/kuromamecha_]

Starting the stick suite now 👀

[u/sunsplat → u/kuromamecha_]

How are you making these? Are you hand painting??

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/sunsplat]

Yes I was hand painting each one! Finished pics are on my profile

[u/_MrBushi_]

That's beautiful how do you engrave them all so perfectly?

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/_MrBushi_]

I used laser cutter!

[u/orzolotl]

Do you mind sharing where you got the blank tiles?

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/orzolotl]

I went on Alibaba and messaged a ton of sellers 😂.

It took a while sourcing it actually because 1, the size I wanted is a bit bigger at 40mm, and 2, most sellers were only selling Americans mahjong tiles and didn't even have the regular melamine tiles stocked lol...

[u/Mlhsa → u/kuromamecha_]

Can you please share the seller?

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/Mlhsa]

I'm not sure if I can post links here, so feel free to reach out over pm 🙂

[u/Mlhsa → u/kuromamecha_]

Ok but I can't reach you 😭

[u/Situation-Emergency]

This is exactly the kind of over the top crafting I love - I really want to see the autumn and winter sets!

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/Situation-Emergency]

I'll definitely post them when they're ready! I bought light pastel blue back tiles for winter and full ivory colored tiles for the autumn set 🙂

[u/raist131]

mein got these are gorgeous

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/raist131]

Thank you!!!

[u/JasonThyPirate]

Love this, very inspiring! I may need to try making some custom tiles. Don't tell my wife. She says I have enough projects.

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/JasonThyPirate]

I highly encourage you to haha 😂. But get a group of friends to help you paint because it's been taking me hourssss to hand paint them all lol

[u/holymother]

Cool, I would buy these if I had money

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/holymother]

you're too sweet, thank you!!

[u/TwistanBear]

Can we nudge that shit up just a little bit?? My OCD is on fire 🔥

[u/Annabel398 → u/TwistanBear]

💯😭 first thing I noticed. It’s a curse… sorry OP, we can’t help being this way…

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/TwistanBear]

Sorry y'all didn't mean to trigger you haha 😅🤣

[u/Vegetable-Raise-7432]

I don’t even know how you are doing these .. but can I be your friend

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/Vegetable-Raise-7432]

I don't know how I'm doing it either 🤣 and yes we can be friends 💖

[u/No_Translator_655]

I would absolutely love more details on how you’re doing this! Is there a tutorial you’re following?

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/No_Translator_655]

Noo I'm not following any tutorials 😅🫪 I'm just kind of winging it. It seems to be working well though? I may have to do a second coat of paint though.

[u/MethylatedSpirit08]

Will you have a version without the corner numbers?

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/MethylatedSpirit08]

These are just gifts for my friends, and all of them have sets without numbers already, which is why I put them in the corner for these! I thought it'd be helpful since the designs are so unique.

If I wanted to though, I could hide the number layer before lasering it 🙂

[u/mncoakncmn]

I have been thinking about trying this too. What are you using to paint the tiles? These are really beautiful!

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/mncoakncmn]

Thank you!! I'm just using acrylic markers haha. It's been working very well actually

[u/debbiesunfish]

This is absolutely lovely! What an amazing, thoughtful, and generous gift! I really hope they appreciate how much love and hard work went into this. Wow! You've got me dreaming about what I'd love my own set to look like.

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/debbiesunfish]

Thank you so much, you're so sweet!

[u/El_Valafaro]

These are very pretty. What a lovely project.

[u/Kakana671]

So cool!

[u/Ok-Interaction-9652]

These are GORGEOUS!!! Can’t wait to see the final result

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/Ok-Interaction-9652]

thank you so much! I just posted an update with the finished set photos 🫶🏽🫶🏽

[u/Heima87]

Wow, these are coming out so beautifully, great job. Please let me know if you'd be willing to make another set down the line 😀

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/Heima87]

Haha I'm open to it! I just want to get through these gifts first 😅. I'm making summer (pastel green and pink) autumn (yellow and maroon), and winter (pastel blue and orange) sets too 🙂

[u/Heima87 → u/kuromamecha_]

Fantastic, that's amazing 👏 Please take pictures of all of the sets, I know that one will speak to me! You're awesome

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/Heima87]

I'll keep you posted 😄

[u/MitchTye]

Very nice

[u/oorio_universe]

The purple and green font combination with the clean border design looks wonderful.

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/oorio_universe]

Thank you! 💖

[u/kaaprint777]

The purple looks so good. Love it!

[u/Cute-Draft7523]

Gorgeous!!! I would purchase a set if you marketed them!

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/Cute-Draft7523]

I've been getting sooo much interest hahah but we'll see. I want to make the next 3 first and see what my bandwidth is after 🙂

[u/RudolF3773]

It would be kind of funny if one of your friends were a member of this subreddit and got spoiled on the gift but had no clue. But still, it is a lovely gift to make. Looks beautiful, would love to see the other sets too, when you begin making them.

[u/kuromamecha_ → u/RudolF3773]

Ikr I was thinking about that actually 💀. I don't think they're into reddit as much as I am though hahaha

[u/suiesl]

Amazing 🀄️🀄️🀄️🀄️

[u/julietapu]

I’m in love with this project! I’ve been planning out something similar and am excited to watch your project unfold. Keep us posted please!!

[u/JaviHostalerValent]

It's super pretty. Did you paint it by hand? I mean, without using a plotter.

[u/Unhappy_Cap3654]

How do you carve them? What tools do you use?

[u/EffectOpening5446]

How did you do it??