AZB 2011 Case of the Year Voting
- Thread starter Worminator
- Start date
Don't worry I will be imposing myself on you for a tour of your billiard room soon.
I am relieved to hear that the weight is manageable for the Eastwood cases. I am certain that you get major attention when you go anywhere with them.
I like them so much for all the creative touches. Obviously an amazingly creative and prolific mind brought them to life.
If one of Phil's cases doesn't win this year then I am sure that from here on out his stuff will be the ones to beat in the coming years.
And best of all, he delivers.
Don't worry I will be imposing myself on you for a tour of your billiard room soon.
I am relieved to hear that the weight is manageable for the Eastwood cases. I am certain that you get major attention when you go anywhere with them.
I like them so much for all the creative touches. Obviously an amazingly creative and prolific mind brought them to life.
If one of Phil's cases doesn't win this year then I am sure that from here on out his stuff will be the ones to beat in the coming years.
And best of all, he delivers.
Hi John,
Do you have a date scheduled, when you will be in KC? Just curious...
Karen and I are going to try to do all of March in the USA. We hope to travel the Midwest and hook up with Roy in Indy and Will (and you and whoever we can meet) in KC, I have a gambling date in Houston if the stars line up, and of course I have to make my pilgrimage to Kent Taylor's place in OKC to donate to the One Pocket fund. I will take Karen through the Ozarks to meet my friends in Arkansas.
And time, money and desire permitting we will spend some time on the east coast and maybe find a few days to get out to Arizona.
Wow! How cool! Kathleen and I are looking forward to meeting you and Karen. (p.s.- I still have not seen an email from Karen, but I know you'all are very busy...)
Phil Eastwood is in the unfortunate situation of battling against himself since he has 3 cases nominated.
The traditional western tooling designs are awesome, but it is also nice to see some heading in different directions. Variety and choice is always a good thing.
The traditional western tooling designs are awesome, but it is also nice to see some heading in different directions. Variety and choice is always a good thing.
I was thinking the same thing. Phil really out did himself this year with all the great cases he got done. I am sad that more Turcassos weren't put in, nor more of Rex's cases.
I agree about the florals. But it was just four years ago that heavily tooled cases were barely ever seen. Now what seems so common on here really isn't in the larger world. Lots of folks in the past four years have done a lot of creative stuff outside of Sheridan style tooling.
Frankly the clover case by Al King is an example of how to take it out of the box in a super classy way.
For a guy like me who knows what goes into making these this is like a trip through the Louvre and the Saddlemaker's shop together. Most of you don't really know what it takes to make a cue case. There is a very good reason why most leather workers shy away from them. (no one is asking them.....) And that reason is mainly that the amount of work to do one well is not at all tied to the amount of money that people are willing to pay. Leather workers can make more common items and get paid a lot more for their work than they can get with cue cases.
So when you see a Whitten like Birk's - take a trip to the nearest LV store and compare it to a $2000 purse. When you see a stunning creation like the Zinzola compare it to a simple belt by Prada that costs $800. And when you see a bonfide leather sculpture like Eastwood is doing compare that to a $20,000 Hermes bag and see which one you think should cost more.
What most of you don't understand, and I know some of you do, is that you are living in a magical time when it comes to cue case making. Cue case makers are a breed apart from normal leather workers. We don't start out making wallets and belt buckles....we jump right into cue cases and figure it out as we go. Thus you end up with a lot of diversity and out of the box construction methods. We have to make up a lot of the techniques we use because no one has ever really done it the way we do it.
This is a great thread but as Will said it's a shame that only one side of his case is presented.
Rex Goulet had the idea to have a case showing at the Super Billiards Expo. I hope to see that happen this year and I hope to see more case makers getting together to show and compare their work at more events going forward.
For me I remain in awe every day by the stuff coming out now.
Agreed. Here's the breakdown by case-maker:
Eastwood: 49 (3 cases)
Justis: 25 (3 cases)
Cyrex: 24 (1 case)
King: 15 (2 cases)
Melton: 14 (1 case)
Whitten: 10 (1 case)
M.A.T.: 7 (1 case)
JB: 4 (4 cases)
Blair: 1 (1 case)
Clements: 0 (1 case)
Thomas: 0 (1 case)
I'm surprised to only see one Cyrex case nominated, would have liked to have seen more.
I would have also liked to see JB submit what he thought was his best work in 2011.
Those Eastwood cases, wow! Another level for sure.
I love the custom hand tooling on the M.A.T. case.
My vote went to the Melton for clasic artistry.
I would have also liked to see JB submit what he thought was his best work in 2011.
Those Eastwood cases, wow! Another level for sure.
I love the custom hand tooling on the M.A.T. case.
My vote went to the Melton for clasic artistry.
I agree that the reference to the Mcdermott cue is indeed an accurate one, or perhaps a OCC theme bike. I can just see the strap, but the spheres on the Knight case ain't even round, much less spherical. and whats up with all that wire, I suppose that is one way of making a seam. Good luck convincing everyone that these are anything but weak attempts at using Frazetta's comic book art to inspire a composition. I often wondered what would happen if Conan the barbarian had a baby with Billy the exterminator....these cases might be close.
I am surprised that there is only one Marc Turcasso case nominated. His work is amazing. I believe that the Celtic King Case gives the majority of the cases on this thread the 7 ball. I think there is some nice work on many cases her nominated, though some of them are very unappealing to me personally.
2011
Big thank you to Jamie for taking the time and effort to make this poll. It's great to see case makers getting recognition for their hard work and artistry.
We sure are lucky to see so much growth with pool gear these past few years. Looking forward to what will come in 2012!
Happy New Year to everyone. Hope you all shoot straight this year.
P.S. And THANK YOU to everyone who voted for the Zinzola case. It means a lot to me.
Big thank you to Jamie for taking the time and effort to make this poll. It's great to see case makers getting recognition for their hard work and artistry.
We sure are lucky to see so much growth with pool gear these past few years. Looking forward to what will come in 2012!
Happy New Year to everyone. Hope you all shoot straight this year.
P.S. And THANK YOU to everyone who voted for the Zinzola case. It means a lot to me.
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Big thank you to Jamie for taking the time and effort to make this poll. It's great to see case makers getting recognition for their hard work and artistry.
We sure are lucky to see so much growth with pool gear these past few years. Looking forward to what will come in 2012!
Happy New Year to everyone. Hope you all shoot straight this year.
I second that Rex. I already see I have to step up my game!
Congratulations on your results. I told you before you had me at Zinzola. You really did a great job on that case and raised the bar.
Congrats Rex
Now quit looking at this thread and get to work on my case. I can't wait to see what you came up with.
Now quit looking at this thread and get to work on my case. I can't wait to see what you came up with.
Way to go Rex, I sure love your cases! Thanks Jamie for doing the thread, it was a lot of fun to watch.
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Congratulations!
Congratulations, Rex!
Very, very much deserved, and to a world class individual. Your contributions to casemaking are already memorable, and are going to be earth-shattering along the way.
Again, congratulations.
Will
Congratulations, Rex!
Very, very much deserved, and to a world class individual. Your contributions to casemaking are already memorable, and are going to be earth-shattering along the way.
Again, congratulations.
Will