A Well Balanced Hammer (plus a free game)

There is a great game I have been taught called "Stump". To play you will need a stump (preferably hardwood),  a hammer, and a nail for each person who is playing (16 or 20 penny in length). Each person starts his nail into the stump. You want most of nail still exposed but started deep enough that it won't just pop out if it's hit weird (that's one way of losing the game). The goal is to knock everyone else's nails into the stump before your own nail gets knocked into the stump, the last nail standing wins. The hammer makes it's way around the circle of people playing and each person tosses for strikes. This is where it is both fun and dangerous, use your intelligence and give the person throwing plenty of space. The person throws the hammer and must catch it again on the handle. The rotation of the handle is a multiplier, one rotation x1, two rotations x2, three rotations x3, four, well I've never seen that happen so do what you want with it. The base number depends on the throw, straight up in front of you is 1, thrown from under the leg is 2, thrown behind the back is 3. So if I throw the hammer from under my leg (2) and it has 3 full rotations (x3) I get 6 strikes I can use to pound in other peoples nails. If you don't catch the hammer at all or if you don't catch it on the handle you don't get any strikes. When your nail is completely pounded in beneath the surface of the stump you are out. Enjoy this great little game and my newest pipe, The Well Balanced Hammer. 

The Well Balanced Hammer is an amazing sitter. The pipe balances on what would be the claws of the hammer and has such a light and beautiful look. DeProfundis suggest making my pipes look lighter by having them curve under towards the bottom and I think this one fits the ticket. 

Aggiornamento: Cultural Exhibition

Ever since December I have been participating in an Art show. A good friend of mine Mark Thomason, who heads up Thomason Art Group and is the main instigator of the show, hunted down the hall for us and has put in all kinds of time and effort. Each month we've been trying to add something. From the beginning we have had my own pipes, several painters, a ceramics artist, and a couple of photographers. Last month we had a iconographer join us and a sketch artist. We have had live music Friday night for a couple of months. Last month we had our first Art Demo for kids on Saturday afternoon. This next month we are calling for writers looking especially for short stories and poems to post on the walls. And drinks are available throughout. 

Our next show is this weekend. Friday, February 3 our show is open from 6-10 p.m. and on Saturday, February 4 our hours are 1-5 p.m. Are show is located down at the Knights of Columbus Hall near the Cathedral, 1555 Grant St. Denver, CO. Please do show up, bring a friend or several. It is a blast.

The Elephant

I have been fascinated by a pipe I recently saw that had ridges and so I decided to experiment with that technique. Ridges are difficult. The ridges on The Elephant tobacco pipe did not come out perfectly but I still satisfied with them.

A lot of different names were suggested for this pipe, probably the most common name has been the snail but someone suggested that it looked like an elephant head, with the stem as the trunk and know that's all I can see. I hope you enjoy.

The Trunk and the Branch

People frequently ask me where I get the ideas for my pipes. Specifically, I am asked if I, like Michelangelo, chip away at the wood until I bring out the briar's true form. Until now my usual response  has been a confused look and a nondescript grunt. However, after having carved The Trunk and the Branch tobacco pipe I have gained an inkling of what all that means. 

I am still amazed at how far I deviated from my initial design which was similar to Gimli's Travel Pipe. As I started to shape the pipe different and better shapes presented themselves to me from the block of Briar. What could I do? I discarded my designs and followed the fantastic shapes the briar presented to me. I am beyond pleased with it's final form, a great little sitter that looks like a tree trunk with a branch veering off from it. 

The Cross

I needed to make some crucifixes for christmas rosary gifts. I think they turned out rather nice. The crosses are made of maple. I played around a bit with stain's on the edges and then used my new engraver tool to sketch on the corpus. We bought the beads and my wife did the bead and cord work. 

A Red Hot Poker

Blessed Christmas to all and happy feast of St. John the Evangelist. Thank you all for your support throughout my first year as a pipe maker, especially those who feed me ideas and those who purchased a pipe. Several of my pipes have sold through Tewksbury, and I am very grateful to Dave, Brian and Gwyneth of the before mentioned store for all their support and input. I don't know yet what the new year will bring but I look forward to new and refined ideas,

I decided to play around with a bit of a simpler design. This tobacco pipe has elegance in its design and fire in its heart. The red dye I found is so brilliant and striking that it leaps off the pipe and draws the eye in.

A Dead Head

The Dead Head tobacco pipe is a fun little pipe one of my brother in laws suggested to me. The image is obviously taken from the Grateful Dead's skull design. It was a great chance to improve my skills with the more precise carving tools.