Featured Stories
Winter 2008
An Artist’s Vision
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Stephen A. Ross
Canadian pipemaker Michael Parks brings an artist’s touch to his pipes
The Chicagoland International Pipe & Tobacciana Show is a marvel. Pipemakers, pipe enthusiasts, retailers, briar collectors, antique pipe collectors and tobacco blenders from around the world gather in the Windy City in early May every year to participate in what may be the world’s largest pipe and tobacco show. People who make the pilgrimage enjoy informative seminars, have the opportunity to visit with their favorite pipemakers, observe stunning collections of antique and modern pipes, appreciate the work of established pipemakers and witness pipes from up-and-coming young pipemakers who are bringing fresh approaches to pipemaking.
This year’s show was no exception, as a set of seven Volcano pipes made by 30-year-old Canadian pipemaker Michael Parks drew intense interest and admiration from pipemakers and collectors alike.
Made for a private collector, Parks worked tirelessly for months to bring the set together in time to debut it at the show. Sorting through countless briar blocks to find the seven that exhibit the best-quality grain took some time, and then he spent even more time considering each pipe’s design, intending to bring variety into the series while staying within the basic confines of the volcano shape.
“The theme would be the volcano pipe, but I played on the word volcano and worked with colors I thought were associated with fire—a little bit of red and yellow,” Parks comments about the set’s design. “Best quality was also a theme. I wanted the best-grained pipes I could get. Variety was important as well. I tried to keep each of them slightly different. No. 1 looks sort of Italian. No. 2 looks more Austrian or German. No. 3 is very much like something I’ve made in the past using a horn shank extension. No. 4 is a panel, which is something that I also like to do. No. 5 was a small Japanese one with bamboo. No. 6 was the red one. I really like that one. No. 7 was a bit of a raindrop-style pipe.”
The box in which the set is stored is as impressive as the pipes. Keeping with the fiery motif, Parks commissioned a friend to fashion a box using a figured pomelle bubinga wood, trimmed with orange-colored strips of a type of rosewood called flame wood, and accent dowels of fossilized mammoth ivory. And Parks is currently fashioning a set of tampers to accompany each of the pipes to conclude the project.
“It’s been the most challenging work I’ve had making pipes,” Parks says. “It was a tremendous amount of work and focus. I had a deadline—the Chicago show—that I wanted to keep as well. It was a close call, but when the customer saw the set, he was thrilled, which was awesome.”
Using different stem materials, such as vintage bakelite and acrylic, and adornments such as fossilized mammoth tusk, blesbok horn and bamboo, Parks has created a series of pipes that is as much sculpture as smoking instruments—testimony to his background as an artist who has devoted his artistic vision to pipemaking.
A native of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, about an hour’s drive east of Toronto along Lake Ontario’s north shore, Parks says he has always been artistic and always liked to make things. His father was an insurance broker and his mother was a teacher. Growing up with two brothers, the Parks family often spent their free time outdoors, hunting for deer in the north, duck hunting on the lake or fishing for trout. It was on one of these family expeditions, when Parks was 17 or so, that he smoked his first pipe.
“My grandfather, who I was really close to, was a pipe smoker. He had pipes everywhere all of the time. They were scattered everywhere around his house and he smoked one all the time. One Christmas, when I was 17 or 16, he gave my brothers and me pipes that he had owned. The first time I smoked the pipe, my brother and I were trout fishing with my dad. I liked the ritual and the camaraderie of it. There was something about being by the creek on a beautiful morning and enjoying a smoke—I really liked that.”
Within a couple of years of enjoying his first pipe, Parks says he began dabbling with making his own pipes while he studied fine arts and business at the University of Guelph. He made those first freehand pipes out of wild apple root from the side of a hill near his home, beech wood and yew. Parks did not attempt to make a classic shape or even use briar until 1999, when he entered the Pipes and tobaccos billiard pipe-carving contest.
“I made a pipe for that contest to see what I could do. I got my first briar from an exotic wood store that wasn’t too far away from campus. I didn’t have many tools available, but I had the university’s sculpture studio at my disposal. I remember cutting apart my first briar burl using a hand saw. I made my attempt at a billiard and sent it in and it made it into the magazine. There must have been very few entries for that contest,” he jokes.
Parks says that those first pipes didn’t smoke very well. He describes them as nothing more than miniature sculptures that happened to have a bowl, a draw-hole and a mouthpiece. They were sculptures first and smoking pipes second, but buoyed by his billiard’s appearance in the Winter 2000 issue of P&T, Parks began thinking about being a professional pipemaker.
Initially, the biggest hurdle Parks faced in becoming a professional pipemaker was finding the time to make pipes. After graduation, Parks found work as a landscaper, traveled and tried to make pipes whenever he could.
A trip to Europe to live with a friend from school also encouraged Parks. He arrived in Nice, France, with some of the pipes he had made. Wanting to make some contacts, Parks traveled to London, England, Geneva, Switzerland, and Milan, Italy, to visit tobacco shops and to see other pipes, and he went to St. Claude, France, where he met with Jacques Craen from the Genod factory and hand-picked his first bags of briar.
“I meant to spend a much longer time in Europe than four weeks,” says Parks. “Evidently I spent all of my money on wood and I had to come home, but that was OK because I was ready to come home by then.”
Upon returning to Canada, Parks moved to Victoria, British Columbia, for four months while his future wife, Meghan, completed an internship at The Royal British Columbia Museum. While in Victoria, Parks worked at Old Morris Tobacconist, a store established in 1892.
When Meghan finished her internship, Parks returned to his landscaping job in Ontario. He worked there a full season but as the autumn approached and the leaves began to turn, Parks planned to take the winter off to devote his time to pipemaking. Parks had made only a dozen or so pipes in the previous two years, but during that winter he made 45. With so many pipes in hand, Parks attended the Chicago-
land Pipe & Tobacciana Show.
“I went to a show in Ontario first but it was small. Chicago was overwhelming. All these people who were in the magazines I had studied and were icons to me were there and they were all friendly. It was fun. I sold enough pipes to pay for the travel and I gained some customers there that I still have today. I also made some friends, like Lee Von Erck.”
After Chicago, Parks traveled to many other pipe shows. He gained constructive criticism and helpful hints from established pipemakers and knowledgeable collectors. He also learned a lot just by observing other pipemakers’ pipes. While the sculpture, or art, of the pipe remained Parks’ focus, he began to realize the importance of the pipes’ engineering.
“People saw my work and responded to it. The more experienced pipemakers were so helpful too. They saw that I was earnestly trying to create, and they gave a little bit of description to help me in some areas. I haven’t studied under one maker but I’ve been taught by a lot of different pipemakers. They really helped me refine my craft.”
The shape of the tobacco chamber is dictated by the pipe’s overall shape, Parks says, but there are a few specifications that he strives to achieve when making a pipe.
“I think a relative amount of open and easy draw is important. I believe that the mortise and tenon should be as close as possible, if not touching. I believe the “V” air slot in the stem is important for a smooth draw. I think the bit should fit comfortably in the mouth, and this is something that I really admire about the Danes. They make pipes that have such comfortable bits that you can leave them in your mouth all day.”
Parks has developed a close relationship with an Italian briar mill, importing thousands of Italian blocks into Canada each year. In the beginning, he traveled to the mill for two consecutive years to hand select the wood, and then he visited tobacconists in Rome and Venice.
“Italian wood is lighter, and within the Italian wood there seems to be different kinds—one with really thick grain, like stuff that Tom Eltang would use for his high contrast finish, for example. And because of its density, all of the Italian briar makes great sandblasts.”
Parks grades the briar by quality and size for his own use and then sells the remaining briar to other pipemakers. Because he primarily takes custom orders, Parks requires very specific blocks. “I want to develop connections with the people who are making pipes. I want the material coming through because some blocks are hard to find as far as cut is concerned, so it gives me the variety to find what I need. I also get some people requesting certain blocks and I can find them what they need.”
He also plans to start selling fossilized mammoth ivory, on which there are no trade restrictions, several types of exotic wood and pipemaking materials.
Parks describes his pipemaking style as “methodical.” He says he takes many steps removing wood by using a band saw and table sanders. He says his limit is working seven hours a day on a pipe and he has been known to put as much as 50 to 60 hours into a single pipe.
“I work on three different sides of the block and I work from square. Initially I always work with a square. I’ll put time into reading a block from the outside and then choose a design that I think that block can offer.”
He has a reputation for making larger pipes because he has fostered a group of collectors who prefer larger pipes. Many of these pipes’ designs are informed by classic Dunhill, Charatan, GBD and Barling shapes because both Parks and his customers like those styles. But Parks also puts his own creative flair into these traditional shapes, which includes using hand-cut stems. Parks uses many different materials for his mouthpieces—ebonite, acrylic, vintage bakelite and acrylic resins, which are softer than true acrylic.
“I like to work with colors,” he says. “And I am particularly interested in using exotic materials to adorn my pipes.”
Parks doesn’t use bamboo as often but he has used different types of horn—cow, kudu or blesbok—and deer, caribou and moose antlers. He has also used fossilized mammoth tusk, mokume, gold, amber and even stingray skin.
“When I get into it I tend to really get into it. Sometimes when I use a decorative accent I go way over the top. Other times I prefer to do something a little more subtle. For example, I’ve recently been into slightly translucent mouthpieces—like a smoky gray acrylic that allows you to see the smoke channel when you hold the mouthpiece to the light. I also like to place a series of solid dark and then clear bands onto the pipe, alternating them solid dark to clear to solid dark. I think the contrast is really cool.”
Parks offers pipes that are smooth, rusticated or sandblasted. He has two types of rustication—carved, which is linear, and coral, which creates a more randomly textured surface. When he is making a smooth pipe, Parks considers the grain alignment, but he says that’s an important consideration for sandblasts as well. He uses an assortment of stains ranging from very dark brown to light, and he has his own version of a high contrast finish.
“Usually I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do with the block of wood before I cut into it. I aim high when I’m making a smooth. The more light finishes I can produce, the better, I think.”
At the moment, Parks is working on a custom-ordered set of approximately 12 to 15 giant pipes based on the characters from “The Lord of the Rings,” which he hopes to complete in 2008. He says that he is happy with the level of craftsmanship and quality that he has achieved as a pipemaker, but that’s not to say he’s not looking for ways to improve upon his craft.
“I find what I’m doing right now really fulfilling. As I become more experienced, I take longer to make pipes because I take on larger projects. There are only so many pipes that I can make in a year, but I would like to improve my volume. Making pipes for people to smoke and foster camaraderie is really cool and the opportunity to make art is inspiring. Producing fine pipes and then seeing my customers’ appreciation of them is rewarding and makes me want to continue to make pipes.” P&T
Parks Pipes are available at the following retails shops:
Smokers' Haven
2475 N. High Street, Columbus, OH 43202 telephone, 866.764.2836; www.smokershaven.com
Pipedo
Pallace Koshien B1, 2 -10 Koshien 7-Bancho, Nishinomiya City, Hyogo, 663-8177, Japan; www.pipedo.com
Galereja Gradusov, Serpukhovskijj Val ul., d. 5 109 (280), Moscow, 115191, Russia;
telephone, +7(095) 9520542; www.cru.ru
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