Richard Black Custom Cues  

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Richard Black

Pearls are created only because the oyster has no other way to relieve an itch. The itch Richard Black felt was the tension of financial and corporate America, where he spent 17 years in sales and management. For relief, he took up cuemaking as a hobby. And the jewels have been coming ever since.

Richard has no formal training in machining or art, and in fact is something of a frustrated artist; he knew he had the eye for design, but what he saw in his drawings and paintings was but a watered-down version of what he had envisioned. Starting in 1974, he found that cues were meant to be his canvas.

Drawing on sources as eclectic as Gaugin, Picasso, Fabergé eggs, and Parker pens, Richard Black has gone where few cuemakers have in terms of design. His wands adorn two museums (the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution; plus one to be named shortly by Black patron, collector, fellow cuemaker, and donator Richard C. Helmstetter); diverse publications including Esquire, Playboy, Texas Monthly, The New York Times, and the Chicago Tribune; The Spring ’93 American Cuemakers Association Expo ("Best of Show" award) and virtually every gathering of the world’s elite cuemakers.

Richard Black has been on the Board of Directors of both the ACA and the Academy of American Cue Art. His work has been paid the rare compliment of enthusiastic acceptance among both tournament champions and pool’s top "gamesmen": Steve Mizerak, Jean Balukas, Buddy Hall, Jersey Red, Allen Hopkins, Dan DiLiberto, and literally dozens of others. He lives on a serene 10 acre retreat on Lake Houston in Texas, with a list of pets whose eclecticism complements his cuemaking designs nicely; and his wife of 40+ years, Ardis, who also holds the titles of best friend, major supporter, major critic, confidant, bookkeeper, shipping department manager, secretary, receptionist and design consultant.