The Wise Old Man

In The Wise Old Man tobacco pipe I went back to playing with squares again. I didn't keep it the straight lines like on The Gavel but it's still blocky. Also, the distress was fun to play with. 

The Winding Path

The Winding Path is a marvelous churchwarden tobacco pipe inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's poem The Road Goes Ever On. I have wanted to start playing around with interior contours for a while and this piece of plateaux briar was just asking for it. The indentation and distressing of the path that winds from the top of the bowl to the bottom of the pipe with a small "y" veering off along the stem was a pleasant challenge and a rewarding effect.

I am quite satisfied with the interaction between the design and the wood especially as I was able to do away with a blemish by putting it in the distress.

The Sexton's Churchwarden

It was suggested to me to try my hand again at a Churchwarden. The Sexton's Churchwarden is the result of that suggestion. On this churchwarden I played around with one of the distressing methods I'm working on. It is stained a beautiful deep red.

I have just finished a fantastic book, Lilith by George MacDonald. In it is the character of the Sexton who is Sexton to the Kingdom of Heaven and also happens to be Adam, the first man. The sexton duties is to  take the dead and makes them alive. In a small way a pipe takes dead leaves and makes them alive in a sort of ethereal manner.

The Wizard's Folly

The Wizard's Folly is the result of making to many wizards pipes in a row without having a new name for the next one, thus the folly. I tried a different method of distressing the rim, which turned out beautifully. Anyway it is another good looking freehand pipe. 

The Potato

Mea Culpa on the long wait since my last post. I was traveling, busy and thwarted at different points of time. So the long elusive pipe that I have been working on has finally taken shape after some input from deProfundis.  Thus the potato pipe is born. It's a bit different from previous pipes in that it has some limited distress, but is interesting in it's own fashion.

Though it is different from my original plan I have formed a certain liking for this pipe. I'll think back on this pipe as my carvers block, hopefully, that has been overcome. 

One more exciting note is that I now have a small metal lathe, which I am still in the process of setting up. I'm looking forward to experimenting with making stems on it. 

Speedy Pipe

This pipe was a challenge to make a pipe a little faster. By working furiously I got it done in just over three hours. One huge time saving feature is the distress at the bend. That allowed me to forgo a lot of hand sanding in that area. My wife, Kate, has told me a number of times, "I like it, except for the distress." This would probably make a good starter pipe.