Brandon Smith contributed the piece shown here to our No-Foil Stanley Cup Replica Contest, with a message that read:
"This was a horrible attempt about a year ago for the playoffs to make a Stanley Cup. It's all pop cans and disposable cups wrapped in tape. I meant to put foil over it but never did. It's pretty ghetto."
Truer words ... anyhoo, Brandon's Cup didn't make the cut. The good news is that we received so many outstanding entries that we couldn't narrow it down to just three winners. So we're bucking tradition from past Puck Daddy contests and letting you, dear readers, decide who our top three finishers are out of six finalists.
Remember the original criteria for the contest:
What we want are 3-D handmade Stanley Cup replicas that stray far away from the usual foil-wrap jobs. Build one with matchsticks. Build one with marshmallows. Build one with three dozen people contorting their bodies in a field. We want the most outlandish, creative and inventive "replicas" of the Stanley Cup you can conceive -- as long as you don't create a traditional "foil" version and, in the end, it looks like the Cup.
Also keep in mind that these Cups could be made at any time, not just within the contest period.
With that, we've narrowed it down to six finalists we feel did some outstanding, creative work (an honorable mention gallery will be published later this week). Below is the poll announcing the finalists; after the jump, take a gander at what they created and hear a bit about how they created them, in order to make an informed choice.
Your votes decide the top three. Voting closes at noon EST on Friday, June 19. Now, a bit more about your finalists.
First up:
Anna Adler's Ham-ley Cup
A fan favorite, no doubt, as the Hamley Cup has been mentioned more than a few times in the comments since its debut on Puck Daddy. From Anna:
"I call it the Hamley Cup. This was pretty disgusting. Not sure when I will be able to eat ham again."
The making of the Hamley Cup was chronicled on Anna's Flickr page, including the fact that it was consumed by an adorable canine.
Chris Askew's Wood Cup
Chris's Cup is by far one of the most technically impressive, as he shared in his entry email:
Here is your winner. My cup was hand crafted from Solid Oak. It is regulation size and weight.
The construction was done using a segmented bowl technique on a wood lathe. It is made from 552 individual pieces. Over 100 hours went into the construction
So in short: Holy smokes. We once made a doorstop in woodshop class.
Josh Druding's Skoal Cup
Spoke with Druding today, who said that this Cup "made with glue and old chew tins" was constructed shortly after he and his buddies left college. Which, we know, must come as a shock.
As we said to Druding, the reason we really dig this No-Foil replica because it speaks to the blue collar, roughneck, "Slap Shot" aesthetic we love some much when it comes to hockey.
And as we said before, it's great to see a Stanley Cup worthy of either the Carolina Hurricanes or Nashville Predators.
Mark Francis's Pucks Cup
This was sent in by Ryan Stenn, Media Relations & Team Services Coordinator for the San Jose Sharks, on behalf of his buddy. Stenn writes:
Hey there, I wanted to pass along a shot of a Stanley Cup that one of our locker room game nighters made a couple seasons ago. It took him 40 hours to complete. His name is Mark Francis. I'm not sure how many actual pucks were used.
Probably, like, eleventy-seventy billion from the looks of things.
Hell of an accomplishment, and obviously we appreciate the Sears studio quality of the photograph. It only there was a smaller image of the Pucks Cup somewhere in the corner, it would look like our baby photos.
Robert L. Streeter's Cup Cake
Robert's brother, a cop by trade, is a cake-maker on the side. From Robert:
Here is a birthday cake that my brother made for his son this past weekend. I just had to include the Red Wings jersey in the picture. It was a white layer cake covered with fondant and sprayed with food grade silver coloring. The pucks are hostess Ding Dongs (a great touch, I must say), so the whole thing was edible and delicious. I already gave him grief about not engraving all of the teams and players names, so try not to hold that against him. I would also argue that the foil on the plate holding the cup should not count.
Fair enough. And every time we see this, we start craving Ding Dongs. Wait ...
Wrap Around Curl's Cupcake Cup
Finally, Curl presents this awesome No-Foil Cup that was made from scratch and with some rather interesting elements. Check out her blog (some PG-13 language) for full details, which are rather amazing -- 100 cupcakes, a Canadian whiskey bottle, etc. Here's a snip:
I had to let the cupcakes set overnight. Also I had to figure out how to make a topper bit. Off to Walmart I went. I bought one of those half sphere things that grandmas buy and shove silk flowers in they bought at Michaels. I jammed it on top of the bottle and frosted away. Now I know I will be critiqued on my execution of replication. But if I do say so, I did [Gretzky] amazing. I did my best to pipe details but it's hot so the frosting got a tad melty. But come onnnnn. You know that is Lord Stanley. Eh eh? I will probably eat it. Except the foam part. Duh.
Thanks to everyone who entered. Vote away!
