Getting Over-enthused

Pipe of the Moment - I was REALLY trying to get this one finished in January but it spilled over by a day. It's a classic example of over-enthusiasm. I started out trying to do an order for a fellow pipemaker, for a similar-yet-simpler shape, and just got carried away when it became obvious that this was going to be an excellent sandblasting example. It ended up being quite a bit over his hoped-for budget and will probably be shooting over to Pipe & Pint very shortly unless I hear from someone by email that wants to buy it direct.

Note - this pipe is now SOLD.

This happens to me too often. I have a hard time restraining myself from trying to make every pipe the very best pipe I can, and I'm bad about overshooting requests for lower or middle grade pipes.

The stem here is cast acrylic in a swirled, custom-colored look - It isn't meant to even try to imitate amber, but rather to be somewhere between faux-amber and some of the really radical colored stems I've seen. The bit is a fair bit thicker than my norm, as I've found the material to be more brittle under hard biting, and I don't want it cracking for anyone after all the labor of making such a handmade stem already!

Please note that the price does not include European VAT, so buyers in EU countries will need to pay TVA as well.

I'd originally intended to write an article about the sandblasted meerschaums I've made using white Somalian meer, but I think I'll leave that till tomorrow. For now, a little preview pic can be seen here. Sandblasting makes an interesting surface on meer. Alas, these pipes are totally unmarketable and I don't make them for sale, which I'll talk about in the next post.