Todd, I think this is very good advice, especially for those looking to become serious carvers. It seems there are at least the realms of engineering, craftsmanship, production methods, and design/artistry that each serious carver will be judged on at market. Others such as personage, the heart behind the work, I've found also mean a lot to me when I purchase a pipe.
For the folks out there who aren't so serious and aren't looking to grow, slow step by slow step, to making a name for themselves, I'm sure tinkering is fun and fine, so please have at it.
My background is an art one, and while my day to day still exists in creative, it's decidedly more corporate than my love of making art in my studio (garage.) Prior to being classically taught, my first real work of art at an early age was decidedly surrealist. Much later in life, I find myself working in the abstract (non-objective) vein. That early work, when I was a kid, just worked for me and fit nicely with who I was at that moment. My learning of anatomy, aesthetics, and the rest of it came much later, when it made sense to me.
So there may be some poor tortured souls out there, who find themselves doing some crazy thing with a pipe kit and beet juice because they just gotta do it. So be it, but heed Todd's words as well. Maybe now isn't your time, but sometime should be.
And so my confession begins. I don't tinker. I butcher. I buy kits and I use a whittling knife and various other bad ideas, and I have an absolute blast. I make Monstrosities. But I'm no pipe carver like you good people, so much as I am a guy who makes art that happens to be smokeable and vaguely pipe shaped. I do not plan on becoming a full time carver who is concerned with finer engineering and exquisite care like you good folks.
My Monstrosities will be offered for free when you contribute at a certain level (not much mind you) to my podcast (
www.oompaul.com.) It is a way to fund the pipe podcast in a pipe related way. I apologize in advance for birthing the beasts, but for now, it's an imperative for me. The Monstrosities will be shown both in and out of their cages sometime later this month. They are not for the faint at heart.
The job of the podcast is to spread the word (we're currently being listened to in 44 countries around the globe) about the great carvers and other good folks of our community. No matter what the heck you're working on tonight, we have more in common than not.
Goodnight friends.
Olie
www.oompaul.com