There's a strange story behind this. The local school is doing a competition in website design, and the kids were tasked to go out and find a local business and build an informative website around it. I guess they chose us because we are "interesting", as foreigners, but the language barrier made for some amusing inaccuracies that ended up on their website... I counted at least 5 gross errors, like showing a briar burl as an example of raw morta! They shot the pics at Christmas, which is why there is tinsel and decorations all over everything - it doesn't normally look quite so much like a used-car dealership. Don't expect to be blown away by the website, but keep in mind it was designed by a class of young children
That was a pretty cool little tour, even if I don't read French. They did a good job through the pictures, though. It's interesting from a cultural point of view as well. I don't think you would ever see school children in America setting up a website showing how a pipe is made. Sad, isn't it?
marks wrote: I don't think you would ever see school children in America setting up a website showing how a pipe is made. Sad, isn't it?
I don't mean to offend anyone here, but the impression I have is that the media in US has a constant need to "promote campaigns" for or against something, when letting things be sometimes seems to be the best choice.
omar_colocci wrote:I don't mean to offend anyone here, but the impression I have is that the media in US has a constant need to "promote campaigns" for or against something, when letting things be sometimes seems to be the best choice.
Oh, that's not offensive, Omar. What's offensive is the way the media in the US reacts to things that they don't understand or like. About the only newspaper I can read anymore is the Wall Street Journal, and even at that there are a few writers that work for them that seriously frustrate me.
marks wrote:That was a pretty cool little tour, even if I don't read French. They did a good job through the pictures, though. It's interesting from a cultural point of view as well. I don't think you would ever see school children in America setting up a website showing how a pipe is made. Sad, isn't it?
I have stopped being surprised now. It wasn't just this school - multiple schools in this area have scheduled shop visits so the children could see pipes being made, hear the story, etc. This used to just astound me. We even get regular visits from a local school for the retarded/disabled/whatever the term is these days. This is not counting the many newspaper articles, magazine articles, and radio show that was done on our pipe biz. After we arrived I had the surreal experience of listening to the 5 part radio show on our pipemaking wrapped around the live news coverage of the European pipesmoking championships... and this was just your ordinary pop radio station too. I can't imagine any of this happening in the US. Something to keep in mind the next time the US media is howling about how awful the French are...
omar_colocci wrote:Nice to see a few more pics of the shop!
Those pens are made by you? They look great!
What is that "resin" block you're holding in that picture you make stems of? Amber?
Emily makes most of the pens here, as I don't have the spare time. We're building the penmaking into a nice little secondary business though.
The block is a chunk of cast acrylic. I have a lot of it on hand since I couldn't bring any of my liquid casting materials over here, so I had to pour everything into molds prior to our move.
