The beginning of the year so far has not been much fruitful regarding pipe making.First off, my holiday went wrong. Ask me what my ultimate holiday would be, I would most definitely say that it would be undisturbed and unlimited time in the shop. The two weeks of holiday that I had since just before Christmas, was not really holiday at all. It was spend on doing those things that's been dragging on for way too long, but just had to be done. Yip, you guessed it: painting, varnishing, gardening, etc.
Then, as if that was not enough, we had visitors for 3 weeks.
So, after all that wasted time, I eventually came up with these 3 pipes on the bench.
The little saucer with bamboo insert started life off as a bulldog that surprised me with awful fissures and cracks on the rim. It's been lying on the bench for a couple of months, until I picked it up and decided to play around with it and a sanding disc. I'm not really sure which way I'm going with the stem yet, but I have a couple of ideas.
The rough shaped stummel on the right is destined to be my 2nd try at shape-first, then drilling. Hopefully you'll see a glorious post about this. If you do not, do not ask.
The pipe in the middle started off with a long shank and the idea to give it a short saddle bit, with maybe a bit of green acrylic thrown in, to keep with the flowery theme. But alas, briar is a fickle friend (or sometimes fiend) and the shank broke. I'm very happy with the result so far, though. Stamping, polish and wax still to come and this one will be ready.
