Stone-Ideas.com

In our overview article, we have once again collected all kinds of curiosities

At first glance, natural stone and sport have little to do with each other. After all, sport is all about movement and stone, with its great weight and stability, tends to run counter to this. Nevertheless, there are cases where the two come together. We have put a few together and fished far and wide – and as usual, the results are not always meant seriously.

And: finally, at the bottom, a special sports anniversary this year that we would like to announce.

Latest news: At the Xiamen Stone Fair 2024, the company Haobo Stone showed the US basketball player Kobe Bryant in oversized granite figure. Bryant is considered one of the best players of all time.
https://www.haobo-stone.com/
 

In many cases, stone companies have developed show pieces designed for the true fans of certain sports. The Fujian Huian Xingyanstone company from China has focused on two of the sports popular with the Anglo-Saxons and in their former colonies: Baseball and Basketball.
http://www.xingyanstone.cn/en/
 

Xiamen Yoyostone has created a soccer in black and white.
https://www.yoyostone.com/

We presented a special stonemasonry work for the European Football Championship in 2008: Master stonemason Helmut Moser from Seekirchen in Austria composed a monumental ball made of 20 light hexagons of Tarn granite and 12 dark pentagons of Impala granite and placed it in front of a stadium. The aim of the work, which weighed 2.4 tons, was to show what qualified stonemasons are capable of calculating and realizing.
https://www.stone-ideas.com/577/craft-2008-mm-diameter-soccerball-for-the-european-champions-cup/

The two balls we photographed at the stonemasonry school in Wunsiedel, Germany were also not suitable for playing. The question they pose is: how do the square shapes get into the round?

Finally, on the subject of soccer, here is an example of one of the many Walks of Fame that clubs have set up in their home towns. The closest example to our editorial office is in Dortmund, for BVB. We show one of the one hundred or so polished granite slabs that have been set into the sidewalk not far from the main railway station.
https://www.stone-ideas.com/10475/design-goooooooooooal/
 

The travertine table tennis table was made by the Italian company Vismara Design and was on display at the Salone del Mobile trade fair in Milan in 2023. The company specializes in high-quality furnishings that bring leisure activities such as movie nights or music experiences into the private home. To this end, it also offers loudspeakers made of natural stone, which we have already reported on, and much more. https://www.vismara.it/?lang=en
Architettura Sonora
 

Golf, of course, is also a theme for the stone companies, this time Vietnam: the Sculpture Foundation in Danang has created a pair of players in white marble for a resort.
https://www.danangsculpture.com.vn/golf-sculpture-for-song-be-golf-resort/

German company Kurz Naturstein has developed real golf clubs made of natural stone under the product name “Energy Putter.“
http://www.stone-energy-putter.de/

In 2011, the Spanish company Arriaga Stone came up with a mini-golf course for private property and tracks made of limestone.
https://www.stone-ideas.com/12509/design-outdoor-lovelies-3/

Ernesto Matos from Lisbon sent us a funny picture of puttering while playing golf with reference to the laying technique for Portuguese paving (Calçada Portuguesa).
https://www.stone-ideas.com/84639/calcada-portuguesa-ernesto-book-matos/
 

Does a course made of stone make a board run better? Some skateboarders say so. We have reported on this several times:
Spain: https://www.stone-ideas.com/24466/design-top-marks-for-stone-for-riding-comfort-noise-level-and-traction/
Pietrasanta. Italy: https://www.stone-ideas.com/36114/carrara-marble-region-skaters-park-made-natural-stone-offal/
Lundhs company, Norway: https://www.stone-ideas.com/83781/red-bull-skateboarding-in-the-quarry/
 

This somehow brings us to motor sports. Fabio Viale’s wagon wheel made entirely of marble with a diameter of 3 m and a weight of six tons should definitely be mentioned here. It was made of white marble by the Italian company Margraf for a luxury car dealership near Miami. The artist has combined different eras in this work.
https://www.stone-ideas.com/102393/fabio-viale-margraf-rotas-marble-cartwheel/
 

Things are generally quieter in curling, where granite stones are pushed across ice rinks. We had reported that the island of Alisa Craig in the Firth of Clyde between Scotland and Northern Ireland, where the stones are quarried, was for sale and can now confirm that a buyer has been found.
https://www.stone-ideas.com/32230/winter-olympics-2014-the-home-of-the-curling-granite-is-still-for-sale/
 

Chess should be very quiet. The so-called royal game is often played outdoors, for example in parks, where the pieces are sometimes made of stone and are then theft-proof. We show a photo of the French pavilion at the Xiamen Stone Fair 2018.
 

Sport is often quietly reflected in stone when images of individual sports are inlaid into stone slabs. We show photos of the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, USA.
 

Finally, the anniversary announced this year is the world championship boxing match between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali in Kinshasa on October 30, 1974. We will skip the political significance of this event for Africa (“Rumble in the Jungle“) and focus only on the punching power of heavyweight boxers: According to tabloid media, a hit can reach several 100 kg.

It probably feels as if a full-grown slab of natural stone has been smashed around your ears.

A fitting photo of Milan Cathedral, where figures with boxing gloves seem to fight at a height on the façade.

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(01.04.2024, USA: 04.01.2024)