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.

A quick up-date from the bench, first I am coming into the completion stage of a horn shape that has an extraordinary straight and birds eye. Lasse Skovgaad Jorgensen picked out this block of briar for me at the Chicago show. He said it would make a great horn shape, I hope I am doing this block justice. I just sent him these images; I have the greatest respect for him, and his honest criticism.

Jennifer is also in the process of completing a shoe pipe holder; Yes a shoe. It is a commission for a customer. The darker shoe is of plastic, he wanted it carved in wood. The wood we are using is Cherry.

It sure feels good to be back to work; well, not really work.  At this stage of my pipe-making career it is truly an enjoyment and expression in an art form that has so much reward.  At the Chicago show this year we met so many new people and spent good time with clients.  I say clients, but with the great time together I can say friends.  I also had a very special surprise when all of a sudden as I looked up from behind my table; there was Paul, a friend for many years that flew in from New Jersey.  Paul and I go back about forty years, I always remember him as a pipe smoker long before I took up the hobby.  I haven’t seen him in about ten years; it sure was great to spend some time together.  I know I will see him at the December 5^th. NY show. This sure was rewarding.

I have three pipes in the works, one is a two knuckle bamboo shank Billiard shape bowl, might be a combo rustication smooth, we’ll see when I start to carve.  The second is a classic Cutty with a new terracotta color ebonite stem, looks like a very nice grain pattern.  The third is a ½ bent apple with a beautifully grained piece of ivory.  So far the briar block looks very, very nice, we will see.  Jennifer will be busy with three commissioned pipe stands; one will be made out of cedar.  We just go in two very nice pieces you can see in the image.  I also have a commission to create a very large, long pipe that will have my clients family crest carved on the front part of the bowl.  I picked up a very large piece of Italian briar at the show it is 11″ a giant of a block I will also add a few inches with an extension of horn to the shank, a very interesting project.  As I start this one I will keep you informed with images from start to finish.

Progress  report; after a days work on this bamboo shank, I am very pleased at the final shape.  The walls have a nice thickness, the stem  is a perfect fit and is cut thin, and the width is just right.  This will make a very acceptable smooth, however, with the grain pattern I know it will make a supper blast. The rim is birds eye and will be kept smooth.  I will work on the blasting tomorrow and add more images, you can compare, and lets see if I am right.

Well, as I said yesterday, I thought this bamboo would make a great sandblasted pipe.  What do you think?  Do I get thumbs up or down?  How about the color?  All that’s left is the stamping and carbonized bowl coating.  It will be added to the site this week. If interested send me an email or call.

Completed

We just completed this commissioned pipe rest for a good client.  As you can see it has a rustic, western look to it.  Living in Arizona this is a piece of our native ironwood.  Before moving to the Tucson area we lived in an area north from here, Rio Verdi.  We had a small ranch on the Tonto National forest.  Many years ago, a raging fire burnt a good portion of the forest, leaving behind many scorched ironwood trees.  Jennie and I would ride our horses in the forest that has now re-vegetated but would find many dead ironwood trees.  As I started to get interested in pipe making, and Jennie had an interest in woodcarving, we thought we would try to bring life back to these beautiful trees.  So, out came the chainsaw and we had a nice collection of this wonderful wood.  You can see many of the ironwood pipe rest on our web site.  This client has one of my pipes that is accented with a band of Zebrawood; he wanted a rest that would match it.  The peg that holds the shank is antler with a tip of zebrawood.  The antler has a perfect arm extended to hold the shank.  The tamper is briar with two bands of marbleized ebonite and a head of zebrawood. All that is left is to have it inscribed, and this rest will be in his den.  We are in the process of making two more custom pipe rest of wood for clients, when completed I will post them.  We also just added to our site the acrylic pipes rest that can be personalized in a variety of ways, we are excited about our new rest, take a look, we would love to have your comment on them.

I thought for all you rock climbers out there  you might find this interesting.  This is one of the most interesting projects so far in my pipe-making world.  I was asked if I could make a pipe that would resemble “Devils Tower” in Wyoming.  This is supposedly a rock climbers dream mountain to climb.  Of course I wouldn’t know, I never thought of climbing a mountain, never wanted to climb a mountain, never would consider climbing a mountain, and definitely would not climb a mountain.  That said; my client has a friend that is a rock climber and as a gift would like to have a pipe made that would resemble this mountain.  Pretty cool stuff.  I downloaded an image of Devils Tower.

I must admit, I thought this whole idea was just a little kooky.  But what the heck.  Next Jennie drew a sketch of my client’s vision of this pipe.  The tobacco chamber would have the shape of the Devils Tower and the shank would resemble climber’s rope. “O’Boy” as I looked at the sketch, this idea didn’t look as kooky anymore, as a matter of fact, I was getting a little excited about making this unusual pipe.  Here is the final sketch we settled on.

So let the work begin!  Below are the various stages of work.

At this stage I am loving this project ….

Well, here it is, the finished “Devils Tower Pipe”  What do you think?

Just returned from another GREAT Chicagoland Pipe Show 2009.

Good crowds filtered through the aisles as Jennifer and I visit with old friends and met new ones.  We didn’t know what to expect in light of bad new around every corner, but we keep a more positive attitude but focusing on the 92% that are employed.

Jennifer and I did quite well; we were very pleased with our sales and a few new commissions we received.  In speaking to others it seems as though they didn’t do so bad also. I think when Frank Burla comes out with the attendance, I think it will be on the positive side; anyway it appeared that way to me. We will wait and see.

Here are some pictures of friends:

Her I am with Lasse Skovgaard, what can I say about Lasse that hasn’t be said before.  He is a master craftsman; he certainly ranks among the best of the Danish artisans.  His work is fabulous. He has given me some very helpful tips and took the time to help pick out some top grade Italian briar blocks. 

Her I am with my friend Michael Parks, I rank Michael amongst the top North American Artist.  His work was show cast this year and soon you will see why.  He did a series “Lord of the Rings” the most spectacular pipes you can envision. They were crafted for John Tolle  of the NASPC.  

Don and Mitzi Kesling are dear friend, Don is working on a new web site  (Kesling Pipes) that should be up and running shortly.  Don’s work is very imaginative; his pipes have interesting lines and curves and are very colorful. 

This is my friend and fellow pipe maker, Al Perkowski,of  ”Creative Briar Pipes”Al and his wife Cheryl are terrific folks, we were disappointed the Cheryl couldn’t make it this year; they have an older dog that is not doing well.  Al makes some very interesting pipes with the use of antler. I have a high respect for his work.

This is Olie Syvester, the creator of “OomPaul.com” he is with his friend Clint. Olie has one of the most interesting blogs you will ever see .. or in this case hear.  It is a blog of pod cast of many pipe artistisens and other interesting people in our pipe world.  Go to his site, I promise you will be trap from then on

Jennifer and I will be offering custom personalized pipe stands.  They are made of clear 1” thick acrylic with oval beveled edges. They will be signed and numbered for each series.  This one below, we are donating to the raffle at the Chicago show, you can see where it is inscribed.  The shank peg has an inserted band of briar at its base with some concave design.  The tamper is of black pearl acrylic; it also has a concave design head of briar stained to match the shank holder and a copper foot.  Also the staining color is the same as the rim of the pipe …. pretty cool.  They will be offered with your chose of exotic wood accents, about five different color shanks pegs and tampers.  We can also add any design you like, etched to the top plate; say a family crest, animals, just about anything you would like.  I will have up for you to view soon a two pipe acrylic rest.  It is on the same order as this one, but is round with actagular multi faceted edges … really nice.  We will be adding a special page on our web site with our new acrylic stands.  We will have a flat pricing for each with an inscription on the side as seen on this one, but as mentioned for a small extra charge we will customize your rest for you.

By the way, the pipe sitting on the stand is my newest creation.  It has an elephant band of ivory and what a fabulous ring blast.  It will be sitting on a stand like the one its on, we are considering offering it as a set at the show.

After our first viewing of our new pipe rest in Chicago, we decided to add a deep green or black bottom to all our rest.  (Your Choice)  We sold a couple but receive constructive comments about the clear bottom. So, we agree, we think the color bottoms add even more richness. We would love to have your input. 

We hope to have our new pipe rests available on our web site, as early as next week.  Please check back.