THE GULF BETWEEN SPORT AND ME

I am not a golfer and not really clued up about the game. However, I have had to learn a bit when making glass golfing related sculptures. I used to make a lot of golfing trophies for competitions that were unisex. In truth this was really because I could work out where to place the body parts around the swing of a gold club. Interesting that if you make a glass female with breasts then turn the figure into a swinging position. Add a golf club and arms and hands then hey presto the breasts disappear!

I have made glass tees and balls plus golf balls on tees. My favourite glass related piece is a hole in one. This is a flag at a hole with a hole in the actual flag itself which of course has the number one engraved on it. Had to make a 19th hole of course and this was a flag bent in all directions with a small glass bottle fused at the base of the flag.

Green is the dominate colour for anything related to golf. They even call the ground golf is played on green, so I have had to incorporate this into my glass sculptures. Easiest way is the use green sticky back imitation felt. I put this on wooden bases to represent the greens and add various designs of glass golfers. Simple really as all wooden bases I use have green baize on to stop scratching surfaces. I just add the baize on both sides.

For fun I once made a series of golfing figures in a putting position. Again, defining the correct gender was a pain. I added long hair for females and all my glass male golfers were bald. Trouble was, as mentioned before my glass breasts disappeared and my long-haired figures just looked like hippies. As we all know hippies don’t play golf.

More fun came to my mid when I made a glass golfer who was in a standing position breaking a club over his knee. I thought of all the frustrating near misses that golfers must have experienced and must have often felt like smashing their club into little pieces.

Several years ago, I was making lots of glass golfing trollies and thoroughly enjoyed doing them. They were complete with details on the bag, nice wheels and six clubs which could be removed. I even included an umbrella that was sandblasted to create a contrasting white colour.

I have even performed at a golf club in St Andrews. I was asked to do a glassblowing demonstration at Fairmont Golf course and hotel. Five stars rated and had a great time carefully not burning the club house down!

I think I am right in saying golf balls are round. As I say I am not a golfer so the balls could be oval. I do know they have dimples which does cause a challenge in reproducing in glass. I have found heating up small areas of the glass surface at a time whilst pushing a carbon rod into the surface works fine. Bored with this technique I decided to make a collection of square balls. These did not sell but when I made golfing figures hitting square balls, they flew off the shelves. Maybe next time I should put wings on them. Do they play golf in heaven? Is it a case for golf lovers that wherever you play golf is heaven. Bit like glass working then.