Last months efforts

[DMI]

All Algerian Briar
Comments and constructive criticism welcome

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David

[Sawdust]

Wow! You've been busy. Nice work, I particularly like the fourth and seventh photos.

Jim

[R.H.]

Wow! You've been busy. Nice work, I particularly like the fourth and seventh photos.

Jim

+1

[baronstrasil]

No. 2 is absolutley perfect

[Mike Messer]

A very good month, I'd say.
My honest, quick take....
1. I like it, nice, very solid looking pipe. The long extension works good on this one.
2. GREAT HORN, Euro 2000+ kind of great. (my price would be Euro 10000+)
3. Cool little pipe, but not my favorite.
4. I don't especially like it. The shank curve and long extension.
5. I don't especially like it, and I can't really put my finger on why?
6. INCREDIBLE, unique, great, Euro 2000+ kind of great. (my price would be Euro 10000+)
7. I don't especially like it. The extension and stem body length, and they are stiff and mechanical looking. I also, don't especially like the groove at the bowl-shank intersection (although the groove works fine on no. 6).
8. I like it, nice, very solid looking pipe.
9. I don't especially like it. Personal taste. I don't much like natural finishes, but also, again, I don't like the long extension or the big, rounded stem body shape.

[baweaverpipes]

My eyes do not look at the briar and the shapes, my eyes are drawn to the bulbous stems and exaggerated shank embellishments.
I might be wrong, but I want to see the shape of the pipe and to have the shank and stem to be flowing with fluid symmetry from the pipe. Nothing seem in proportion.
The horn would have been a beautifully flowing piece, but you killed it. The radius ring is, I'm sorry, hideous and the stem has no flow from the shank, it's without grace. It's much too overstated on all the pipes.
Sorry, I'm in a wonderful humor, but this is what I see.

[DMI]

Interesting set of comments.

Bruce if you have time can you expand your comment a bit, I agree about the ring on the horn but by the time I decided it wasn't right I already had bids on it.

It might help if you know the first two are both 7 inches long.

I'm off to bed and hopefully I'll wake up without a migraine.

David.

[Boekweg]

My eyes do not look at the briar and the shapes, my eyes are drawn to the bulbous stems and exaggerated shank embellishments.
I might be wrong, but I want to see the shape of the pipe and to have the shank and stem to be flowing with fluid symmetry from the pipe. Nothing seem in proportion.
The horn would have been a beautifully flowing piece, but you killed it. The radius ring is, I'm sorry, hideous and the stem has no flow from the shank, it's without grace. It's much too overstated on all the pipes

wow! Really?


@ DMI
You have very nice and uniqu pipes there. Very beautiful!
I for one love #6 and #7 (more so #6)
There is no rule book that says your pipes have to have some sort of fluid symmetry.
All you need is a pipe that is smokable and looks like a work of art, which you have accomplished!
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it is obvious that you make very beautiful pipes with your own unique style.
Well done my friend!

[Sasquatch]

I'm going to agree with Bruce here, with the exception that I don't mind the ring on the horn. But the stem needed to taper much more quickly in order to pick up the lines of the curve in the wood.

It's a little hard to give criticisms that are as concrete as proportion on a billiard or that type of thing, but if you look for example, at the 6th pipe, it's a very organic shape, reminds a guy of a piece of antler with the texture, the understated colors, and the "branchy" sort of shaping. Then go up the stem and wait, there's this totally inorganic and totally symmetric black cap, all hard lines and angles. What's it doing on there? Above that a bent and slightly wobbly stem which actually works on a bent and slightly wobbly pipe. So there's a lack of harmony in the ideas the pipe presents.

Less concrete than that, they are all very busy, with accents and bands and sticky-outty bits and multiple colors.... This can be a stylistic thing to be sure, but I'm left wondering what the point is.

To my eye the horn and the slightly bent acorny one (the 8th pipe) are the best because they are simple and the lines are nearly right (the acorn's stem is too thick for too long and the grace of the shape is lost because of it).

Now, a guy might say "These look how I intended them to look." and if that's the case, then what's happening is that these pipes are not carved in the paradigm that Bruce (and myself) are critiquing within, which is to say the Danish and even the English handmade tradition. Curves are continuous things, adornments are just that - adornments rather than 1/2 the pipe, and stem work is tight and sharp. Straight bits straight, curved bits curved smoothly and completely.

I've gone around the bend on some of this stuff with Abi, who does NOT carve within the "ordinary" style for many of his pipes. There may not be a "right" or "best" shape for any given pipe outside of a certain tradition but INSIDE a tradition or school or paradigm, there is. The rest of us push in that direction because we want to sell $5,000.00 pipes like Bo Nordh, or at least 400 dollar pipes like Dunhill.

[KurtHuhn]

Less concrete than that, they are all very busy, with accents and bands and sticky-outty bits and multiple colors.... This can be a stylistic thing to be sure, but I'm left wondering what the point is.

This is best when spoken with your best Jeremy Clarkson voice. Trust me.

[e Markle]

There is no rule book that says your pipes have to have some sort of fluid symmetry.

While that's undeniably true, it sure does help you sell pipes.

All you need is a pipe that is smokable and looks like a work of art, which you have accomplished!

In college, one of my logic courses was in the art building. Consequently, I had the privilege of walking through the halls which displayed numerous examples of utterly embarrassing works of... "art" (even in quotes it's demeaning to the term; "kitsch" would be much more appropriate here). I am providing no commentary on David's pipes whatsoever, instead I'd simply like to point out that the word "art" is far too often abused. I think your statement, "...looks like a work of art..." is indicative of that.

I'd encourage you to offer criticism. I'm not suggesting that a "Both Barrels" Bruce Weaver approach is necessarily the best (though in some cases it is), but, as you know, criticism helps us see things we miss. Surely you don't think David's pipes rival Former, Eltang, Toku, (your favorite maker's name here), etc.? Mull it over.

[Sasquatch]

Feynman, the famous physicist, got interested in painting - thought he could never "be a painter". He gave some physics lessons, got painting lessons in return, and actually got to be half-decent.

Anyway, at some point, he's in this famous museum gallery studying all kinds of portraits by some really famous artists, and there's 2 pictures he just.... doesn't think much of. As an "artist". They're not as "good".

So later he asks about the gallery, and it's described as this collection of famous artists, and also happens to have two paintings of "no significance" done by students, lackeys .... lesser painters in other words.

Feynman was able to pick them out because he had learned how to paint.

Apply this to pipes. There are "no set rules". True. Do as you please, any of you! But what is the goal? Merely to cobble together a pipe or two? To express your inner need to build something?

I just wanted to make pipes, whatever the hell that meant. I learned along the way what a "good" pipe needs, and what we are really saying here is what a pipe needs in order to sell for more than say 150 bucks. Now, there's nothing wrong with 150 dollar pipes - I make and sell 'em all the time, buy 'em too. But if you look at a 700 dollar pipe, you see types of perfection that are lacking in the 150 dollar pipe.

I recently posted this for sale:



It's a pipe. Nothing crazy. I softened the shoulder on the saddle, just because the pipe was not full of sharp angles. And had some positive and some negative feedback on that. One fairly well respected stem engineer told me it "makes my eyes bleed".

But in any event, I don't think that particular stem will ever be found on a 500 dollar pipe. It's just not especially "good", even in the context of the pipe's overall design.


There are some guidelines, there are some ideals to strive for which render things "well proportioned", whether or not you are explicitly working within some or other artistic or crafting tradition.

The basic proportions of a good looking wooden box are not accidental.

[e Markle]

You may have said that better than I did.

I should possibly balance my prior response with the following: I think one's goals are important too. As your attitude toward that stem reflects, it's ok to not try and make $2000 pipes. Nothing in the world wrong with setting your sights on making $150 pipes. Several have mentioned this before, but it is important to temper criticism with an understanding that some guys are just here because they want a piece of wood with a couple of holes in it that they can use to burn tobacco. Good for you. Enjoy the form. Now if you're here to be the next great pipe maker... cowboy up, cause it might be painful!

Dunno, might just be rambling now... or what did you call it? Garble-ing?

[Sasquatch]

I'll spend all day on this because it's something I struggled with and still do - how long should that stem be? Where the bend? Is this bowl too tall or just not fat enough?

I made a pipe and it looked stupid the other day. A year ago, I would have been proud of it. I spent the week staring at it and hating it, then decided to take about 1/2" off the height of the bowl. Now it's proportioned and the whole shape works. I still hate it just for fucking with me.

In one sense, what the advice from guys like Todd J and Bruce comes down to is "if you do it more like X, the pipe will sell". The first few times I got real "this is wrong" type of criticism on this board, I thought "Really?" and then sat on the pipe for 6 weeks. Make the change that is suggested... and the pipe sells immediately.


It's a very slippery sort of thing to say "You can make a pipe any shape you want, but you have to make it right."

[loosvelt]

I like them all and a few are amazing.

I wish I could produce some pipes half as good as these.

That being said, I really don't like the ring on the horn. It kills the flow.

[baweaverpipes]

wow! Really?

Yes, REALLY!
May I inquire, who are you? Please, let me know your web site, so I can view your body of work. At that time I might concede in what might be considered art.
Certainly, with pipes, "There is no rule book that says your pipes have to have some sort of fluid symmetry" and "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Now, go tell that to Teddy, Eltang, Former, Tonni, Johnson, Gracik, Illsted and a score of other top notch carvers.
I would assume you would not care for something with fluid lines, where one's eyes follow a line to an infinite point. No, to heck with the briar, I want my eye to stop on an irrelevant part of the pipe and forget the briar (which I consider one of the most beautiful creations).
I could go on, but I just need to say that your comment was very dismissive. I was simply giving my personal feedback.
As Rod Davies would say: "Hope this helps".

[RadDavis]

None of the pipes are "amazing". They are all good solid efforts at pipe making.

There's a nice variety of shapes. Some work well, some don't. All need improvement, but don't worry about that on pipes you've already finished.

Keep making pipes, David.

Rad

[JMG]

I really like the pear/acorn (#8)...nice, clean, and pretty. If I weren't on the other side of the globe I'd offer to buy it from you.

[jogilli]

I agree with JMG... number 8 is a winner.. The taper on the mouthpiece could be a little more, but overall nicely executed

james

[DMI]

Thank you gents one and all.

One of the things I really don't want to make is pieces of art, a pipe is a tool for smoking not something to look at, true it can be both, but I try and make good practical pipes.

I think I may be trying to hard to go up a level and I'm over thinking,designing, gilding the lily or whatever, maybe I need to simplify things again and not add fancy bits. If you've ever read Diary Of A Nobody the part where he discovers enamel paint and promptly paints everything springs to mind.

I know my stem work is not great and is in many cases a distraction from the pipe, I've just got the button/slot sorted out and hopefully the rest will follow.

Later today I'll post the four I made last week, which I am actually fairly happy with, and see what you think of them. They are pipes I wanted to make rather than pipes which were made just to be sold, if that makes sense.

David.