By Vivian Collings
A student taking a metalsmithing course at Haliburton School of Art + Design is on year six of creating a hockey cup for the veterinary school at the University of Guelph.
“We had our 150th anniversary in 2012, so about four years before that, I though, ‘What can I do for the students?’ And I remembered having fun in the little hockey tournament that the school had just between the classes, and they didn’t have a trophy,” said veterinary professor at the University of Guelph Brad Hanna.
He initially thought about getting someone else to build a trophy for the veterinary school’s annual hockey tournament.
“One thing led to another, and I got this idea that since our tournaments started in 1930, I just so happened to find a picture of the Stanley Cup in 1930, and thought that it looked small enough for someone to be able to make. When this cup came up at auction, it didn’t have any writing on it, and so I bought it. I met someone in Guelph that said, ‘you can go to Haliburton and make the base yourself,’ so that’s what I did.”
The top part of the cup is what was bought at an auction, and the bottom part is a stand for the trophy that Hanna has been creating.
This year was Hanna’s sixth year taking a week-long metalsmithing course at Haliburton School of Art and Design with Todd Jeffrey Ellis, and before that, he did not have any experience.
“I had never done metalwork before. I think Jeffery is amazing, because if he can take somebody who doesn’t know how to do this and teach them to make something like that in a week, it’s amazing.”
Hanna has been creating the base out of pieces of copper. When he’s finished with the pieces he will stamp each with the names of the winning team from the first 100 years of the tournament.
He’s aiming to have it finished for 2030, and half the battle will be finding the winning teams since 1930 as a record was not kept.
He will need to stamp approximately 30,000 letters into the trophy.
“And then, I’m done! I’m never making a trophy again,” Hanna laughed.
He plans to return next year to take another week-long HSA+D course to continue creating the base for the trophy.