Bender Cues: The Ghost

Home

The Ghost (1997)

Above: One of our favorite clients contacted us with a collection of decorative motifs he was interested in, some ideas for materials and a title! I came up with this design and Mike loved it until he realized that I needed to have the valley between each "lobe" of the design to come out sharp (without a radius) to preserve the detail and delicacy of the design. To build up the lobes on each stem, he inlaid each lobe as a separate piece!

Since maple is not the most forgiving material to inlay, we decided to make a black and white prototype cue to test the fit of all the tiny ivory inlays (shown at the left and in the background of the photo above). When our client heard about the prototype, he added it to his collection as well.

Though his concept was "The Ghost" in maple and ivory, when the cues were first shown, they became known as the "snowflake" cues!

Below: Rogers' Ghost: the hands of a master TMD (1997) 7.75" x 5.5", graphite on Arches paper. The cue had turned out so beautifully, I wanted to try to draw the wonderful woodgrain in the birdseye maple.

The drawing of "Roger's Ghost" became the basis for the 1998 low relief sculptural plaque commissioned by the Gallery of American Cue Art for their annual awards. I changed the inlay design to one a bit less specific, but Mike's hands remain. [Untitled prototype TMD (1998) 4.375" x 3.5", cast epoxy]