Two completed, on their way to there new homes.

Smooth Poker with Zebrawood band

Sandblasted Full Bent with band of Ivory and Green/Black Cumberland stem

This up-date to our blog is way over due; it’s been a busy time in the Rinaldi house getting pipes out before Christmas.  I am happy to say that we didn’t disappoint any one of our clients.

In this segment I am working on a few pipes.  One is a poker that has a really nice straight grain; I am making this Poker for a client that wants our Navajo rustication with a black finish, I must admit I am somewhat torn, this pipe would be such a beautiful smooth.  However, I love the Navajo look and it will look great on a Poker shape.  I think I might have to flip a coin, heads I keep it smooth and make another, or tails rusticate it and move on to the next.  What a nice place to be.

The next is a roughed out Bulldog with an Ivory inlay and a handsome piece of black Buffalo horn, the shank needs a little more shaping but again a very nice clean piece of briar with a super grain.

The next is a freeform full bent; this is being made for Carlos.  It has a beautiful Birds Eye rim and I think it will sport a very nice grain.  It has a band of Ivory and a requested green/black Cumberland stem.  The body will be a very dark brown finish.  I enjoy working a freeform shape, it gives me the freedom to use my imagination to create what I see and feel as I go along.

This next segment is combined work of Jennifer and myself.

THE SCOTT CLAN PIPE & HOLDER

At times we are asked to do things that we have never envisioned doing.  This is the case of our friend Hadley Scott’s Clan Pipe and stand.  Jon and I knew we would need to research this project to make it work.  Being a little intimidated by the scope of the project, I invoked the words of some Scottish Ghosts of the past.

“Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others”.  ~ “Robert Louis Stevenson”

On that note we now embark on the journey of Hadley’s Clan Pipe.

Jon purchased the XX large Italian briar block for this pipe at the Chicago Pipe Show.  The piece was chosen for its clarity and size.  Hadley wanted a pipe large enough to have to bowl resting in his lap.  That meant that the stem would need to be at least 17 inches long.  After researching bagpipes, Jon & I decided that we would fashion the stem after one of the stems on a bagpipe.  The oval buttons on a bagpipe are called projecting mounts.  Jon wanted to re-create that feeling in his stem.

Traditional projecting mounts were made of bone or ivory, with the bands located on the lower regions being called ferrules.  These elements would be a nice touch to the clan pipe.  It was decided that due to the length of this pipe that the stem would be in two parts.  We also wanted to include the silk cord & tassel.

The willing horse is always worked to death.  ~ “Scottish Proverb”

Hadley supplied us with his clan pins, which he wanted to have etched on his pipe.  I took his pins and hand rendered them to preserve the detail this took time.

While I was working on the renderings, Jon was working on the stem & beginning to carve the pipe.

The devil’s boots don’t creak.

Scottish Proverb

This is so true!  That piece of wood looked so perfect too.  As Jon was carving the pipe, a some much feared sand pits made it’s way to the surface.  Not to be daunted, we discussed where to place the clan emblems.  Luckily the emblems mostly covered the flaws.  In the areas where the pipe would be handled, Jon decided to lightly sandblast.  The look was quite pleasing.

“Luck never gives; it only lends”.

“Scottish Proverb”

As the pipe came near to completion, my thoughts turned to the pipe stand.  I will need all of the luck I can get!  With a pipe this long and heavy, my stand would need to be large enough to accommodate the length & weight.

Hadley wanted a stag’s head for the theme.  The Scott clan motto is

“I Love” represented by a stag in the circle of a Scottish belt.  (As seen in crest pins)  Somehow I would like to incorporate the Scottish belt into my design.  We shall see how.

I decided to carve the stag’s head out of a piece of cedar given to me by Olie Sylvester. Olie has a wonderful interesting pod-cast site www.oompaulpodcast.squarespace.com/ the cedar round had a nice purple cast to it as well as being pretty heavy.  The well for the pipe to rest in was the first thing I needed to carve.  I had to make sure that the pipe would rest easily and be nice & stable. In a few weeks Jon will work on the finishing, the sandblasted area will be darker then the body, I can’t wait to see it completed.

THE STAG HEAD PIPE

This is a pipe my wife carved for our friend and pipe artesian Don Kesling of www.Keslingbrairpipes.com Don was asked to carve a pipe resembling a stag’s head.  I was honored that I was asked to take on the challenge.  Being a hunter myself, I have a deep appreciation for a many pointed stag.  I have been fortunate in my lifetime to have seen a few real showstoppers.  Carving this image on a pipe was going to be fun!

Don did all of the drilling, stem work, and technical parts of the pipe that I was to carve.  He sent me pictures of prospective blocks and asked my opinion.  I ended up choosing one with a nice straight grain, but with some cross grain to it as well.  We had decided that parts of the pipe would be sandblasted.  I told him to leave me with as much wood as he could.  This way I could carve the needed details deeply, without risking the thickness of the bowl.

I sent him photo-shopped pictures of how I envisioned the pipe would look.

Don told me the client wanted a nice buck’s head with a many-pointed rack.

Don and I saw the same image.  The antlers needed to wrap themselves around the bowl.  It is always nice to have to adhere to a clients wishes, it is even better when you both can have the same vision.

Carving wood is like a time warp to me.  You get started and before you know it the day is gone!  I feel fortunate that I love what I do.  Right down to the smell of the wood!  This pipe took time, but due to the subject matter, it seemed to go fast.

In the end, Don, his client, and I were pleased with the result.  Here are some images from start to finish.

A great first year success, Marty and Steve did a great job in organizing the show.

What a wonderful place to have a show!  We congratulate both of them.

All tables were sold out and many of the top pipe makers were there, and from what I hear all were pleased with there sales.

Jennifer and I had a great time; we spent quality time with Todd Johnson, Bruce Weaver, Steve Morrisette, Michael Lindner and many more.  I strongly feel that next year will be an even bigger success.  So, when the dates are posted for 2010, make your reservations.  For those of you have never been to Vegas, you are in for a treat.  There are more shows than one can see in the few days allotted for the show.  If your love is fine food, then you are in luck!  Whatever your fancy, you can find it here!  I enjoyed the absolutely magnificent architecture.  Where else in North America can you see a pyramid?

Jennifer and I were pleased with our sales; here are a few of the pipes that sold along with a pipe stand that Jennifer made.

We thank you all for your support.

Jon and Jen

First I must give my apologies for not adding new pipes to my web site and to have a lacks blog.  The truth be said, I have been extremely busy.  Between the Columbus, Richmond, and the West Coast show next week, all within a four or five week separation, it’s been very time consuming.  However, I do enjoy the shows very much.  I have also been backlogged, and still am with commission work.  This is all good news for me.

I thought I would post a few of the pipes that are on or just off my bench.

This ½ bent freehand looks like it will be my star at the West Coast show.  Simply a super grain; and a very clean block.  I am in the final stages of sanding and so far not a spot of imperfection.  The stem still has to be cut, and it has an insert of Mammoth Ivory.

This Lumberman was a commission and is on its way to Germany.  My client liked the Lumberman # 0190-09 (is now at home in Paris France) on my web site and wanted one just like it.  I think it looks pretty close.

This Billiard was being made for a client, but as I was nearing completion, decided he wanted a larger longer pipe.  This billiard would have been a terrific smooth, however, the grain was just perfect to show off a beautiful blast.  This block was very clean, no pits at all, so I kept a natural finish.  This one will accompany me to Las Vegas next week along with the next one.

The last one is a Rhodesian shape with a beautiful birds eye rim, gently sandblast with a band of Mammoth Ivory and horn, the stem is hand cut Cumberland

Just a short insertion to proudly show my latest work.  This was my first OomPaul shape, the block of Italian briar I picked was perfect, and it had no sand pits or flaws and a terrific grain pattern for a beautiful ring blast.  I have wanted to have a natural finish on my last few pipes but the grain just didn’t cooperate.  This time I think it did.  This pipe is available but I will be taking it to the Columbus show on the 29^th.  of this month.

I also completed this really nice, quite large egg shape.  It has a beautiful straight grain completely around the tobacco bowl; the ring band is made of black ebony.  The finish is a very rich sable brown with many highlights showing through.  This one is on it’s way to Columbus also.

Jennifer just completed a very nice Ironwood single pipe stand with tamper.  She inlayed turquoise in the stand and tamper.  It is a good size of small to medium pipes.  The pipe that is shown with it is available on out web site, they sure look good together.

I started off to craft a squat tomato shape, and in deed I did.  A nice straight shank about 5-1/2” long.  I liked it so much I thought it might be cool to make a set of two squat tomato’s.  So I made a twin just about the same size only a 1/4 bent.  They both have my “Navaho Basket Weave” rustication with a Terra Cotta ebonite stem.  Take a look my two pride and joy’s.

Jennifer being a wonderful creative carver said … I think a special stand would be perfect to have the two pipes rest on.  Some of you might remember me mentioning that before moving to the Tucson area we lived in north Scottsdale.  We bordered on the Tonto National Forest were a number of years ago there was a fire that destroyed many acres of the forest.  Left behind were many dead Ironwood trees.  Nature is just magical, during the monsoon season the desert just comes alive with beautiful desert flowers and many varieties of cactus.  Jennifer and I would ride our horses through this area, we would marvel at the wonderful shapes and color of the ill-fated trees.  We had permission to pick up pieces of ironwood as long as we don’t use a chain saw.  We gathered many pieces that we used in carvings over the last five years.  You can see some of the pipe stands on our Exotic Pipe Stand page of our web site.

Having only a few pieces left we decided to make a stand with the ironwood for my two squat tomato’s.  Here is the finished double set.  There are also images in their unfinished stages.

To be honest with you, I am not sure how I would offer the two pipes and stand.  It truly is a beautiful set, and would love to keep it together. I will be adding this set to my web site for sale in a couple of weeks.  However, I want to take this set to the Columbus show August 29^th.  If any one is interested in purchasing the set, please email or call for more information.  I would love to keep it as a set, however, if it doesn’t find a loving home when I get home from Columbus, I will break the set up.

Best Regards,

Jon and Jennifer

Imagine if you will, a solid block of Cherry wood. Locked somewhere inside of this block, is a shoe. Not just any ordinary shoe, but a shoe meant to hold finely crafted smoking pipes.

At the end of the Chicago Pipe Show, this was my challenge. Create a pipe stand in the shape of an old shoe. Our best client had a plastic shoe pipe holder, and loved the way it looked.  The problem was that it was small to hold many of his pipes, and was made of plastic.  I was given this model to work from to create its wooden twin.

The model was an injection-molded piece originally made out of clay.

It portrayed an old sagging work shoe complete with laces, but I must say, it looked kind of cheap-e.

Settling on a beautiful block of cherry wood, my project began.  I started with the inside, drilling the center out to the point where a pipe would rest securely inside.  After that I worked my way to the outside.  It was a real challenge for me to carve this shoe; but still be my own creation. The details are what really made it come to life. I wanted the sole and heel of the shoe to look like leather.  I did this by cutting grooves into the heel, and then polishing it with a hard piece of leather.  The laces had to fall upon the surface naturally.  I let them be a lighter color, so they would add more interest to the surface.  The body of the shoe ended up showing off the cherry wood grain nicely.  It was a pleasure to carve something that lent itself to wood so well.

As a carver I am always excited to work on commissions, they help me as an artist take myself out of the planning. The client has the vision.

It’s my job to make it come true. It helps me become technically better at carving, by forcing me to pay attention to every detail.

Jennifer Rinaldi

Last month I showed this horn shape nearing completion, well here it is!  Finished, a beautiful straight grain on the sides, with birds eye on the top and bottom.  The shank has an olive wood extension and the stem is ebonite.  I am extremely happy with the completed pipe.

Many freeform shape pipes don’t fit in regular pipe rests, I took note that many will try to lean the pipe on an object or lye it down only to have ashes spill onto the table.  With a horn shape pipe it is virtually impossible to do anything but lay it down.  So of course the answer is a pipe rest made specifically for the pipe, and here it is.

I will be offering the set for sale in a short time on our web site.  It has a western look with; I think a touch of formality.  The pipe rest is made of briarroot, the peg holding the stem is a briarwood branch, and the tamper is of olive wood, horn, Cumberland bands, and a brass foot.  As you can see the Olive wood on the tamper matches the olive wood extension on the pipe.  I thought it kind-a cool to have a hornpipe with a horn head on the tamper; also, it ties the pipe and pipe rest together. Click on each image for a larger view.

Jennifer is ready for the finishing of the shoe pipe holder she’s been working on.  It should be completed early this week and ready to mail to it owner.  She, had a great time with this interesting project I will post the finished shoe later this week.  Have a great 4^th; we have much to be grateful for.