Rack 'Em Up

I have fond memories of pool, but it's been ages since I've played, so I'm not sure what inspired me to pay a miniature tribute to the game. All I can say is that, as pleased as I am with what I could make out of a few simple materials, I severely underestimated the amount of work required. 

Crafting the pool table, in particular, involved a considerable amount of pre-planning and troubleshooting, given that I was (both literally and figuratively) making things up as I went along. To begin with, I cut 2 pieces of cardboard into matching rectangles so that they would fit inside the room. Next, I superglued some black foam to the first piece and some green foam to the second piece. With an X-Acto knife I cut out of the black foam-covered cardboard a smaller rectangle and attached the green foam-covered cardboard underneath, so that the bed cloth would sit below the rails à la a sunken living room. Then I sliced through all 4 layers to create 4 corner pockets and 2 side pockets and added cushions between the pockets using small strips of green foam. To conceal the layers of foam and cardboard now visible in each pocket, I first applied a black permanent marker, but I wasn't too happy with the results, so I cut 6 tiny squares of black foam and pressed them firmly against the backs of the pockets. I also attached 6 circles of black foam to the underside of the table, directly below each pocket. Finally, for a finished look, I glued 2 strips of black foam along the perimeter, trimmed them to size using embroidery scissors, and smoothed the edges with an emery board.   

The base of the pool table consists of nothing more than a clear applesauce container glued to the bottom of the lid of a small gift box. 

After considering various options for making the billiard balls, I decided on something that would most easily provide the appropriate scale while maintaining color and number details. I Googled the term "billiard balls," downloaded one of the image results, inserted the image into a new Word document, resized it using the ruler feature, and printed a copy. Then I covered the printout with clear packing tape for a glossy finish, cut around the circumference of each ball with embroidery scissors, and superglued the balls to a piece of Styrofoam left over from a package delivered to my home. The idea was to create tiny orbs that were not quite spherical in shape but still 3-dimensional. Sadly, once the glue dried, it separated from the Styrofoam; my guess is that the surface was too porous, unlike the craft foam that I was using earlier. Now I had to trim away the excess glue from each billiard ball, a process only 8 survived. I lost a lot of balls that day. 

For each pool cue, I cut a wooden skewer to approximately 2/3 the length of the bed cloth. Toward one end of the skewer I glued a thin ring of black construction paper to serve as the joint collar, connecting the shaft of the cue to the butt. Toward the opposite end, using a slightly thicker ring of white paper, I added the ferrule, which reinforces the tip and limits vibrations while shooting. The tip is simply a tiny piece of black foam that I superglued to the edge, just beyond the ferrule, and then smoothed with an emery board.   

After multiple hours of crafting, I was more than ready to hang up my stick. 

Now, who's ready to watch The Billiard Channel?