Client Story
Adam was persistent. He asked over and over for several years for a full 3D Maryland Flag putter, and every time I would just laugh. I offered an engraved top and bottom, but told him that the design was just impossible to piece together. But after he saw the quality of my work continue to improve, he tried one last time in August 2022. And again I said no.
But then I looked at the flag again, and saw the symmetry that would make it all possible. The puzzle piece fits inside of a square to make the skinny sections. So instead of making a complicated mold for the puzzle piece and the thin section, I could just make 2 separate molds: four squares on one side, and four puzzle pieces on the other. I would pour white acrylic in the puzzle pieces first, and let that fully cure. Then I would remove those pieces, and move them to the square molds.
Next, I would mix the red color and pour it into the puzzle piece and the square mold. That way the color would be consistent throughout all the red pieces. After letting that cure, I would have the four white puzzle squares, and four red puzzle pieces. I moved those to the square molds, and poured the final white acrylic. I then had eight individual acrylic squares, and the hard part was done.
I epoxied the acrylic pieces into their final square pieces, and then moved on to the wood pattern. For this, I used oak wine barrels for the golden color, and maple that I dyed black. I used a drum sander to make everything the same thickness and glued all the pieces together. I had already fit the flag shape into a square box, so I printed a template from that to determine the precise angle to cut the wood. I used a bandsaw and then a belt sander to get the lines perfect, and simply offset the colors by one step when I glued the pieces back together. After squaring them off, I glued the final block all together.
Once the block was finished, we added the internal weights and completed the final shaping by hand. This is a labor intensive process, but allows an artist’s attention to detail every step of the way. After adding the shaft, the putter gets several coats of automotive clear to make the piece shine, as well as protect the color from fading due to UV damage.
