If anyone wants a good laugh...

[WCannoy]

I posted a gallery of my early work on my FB page.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 660&type=1

These were all made many years ago, before the age of online pipemaking forums, and I was pretty shy about the prospect of asking other pipmakers for pointers, so...

[d.huber]

Very cool stuff! I particularly liked the gecko pipes. Makes me think of a wizard's familiar.

[oklahoma red]

Some of your work is reminiscent of a pipe maker by the name of Kerry Wathen from back in the mid 70s. He operated out of The Briar Patch pipe shop in Overland Park, Ks. My brother and sis-in-law had a glassware shop next door and I used to meet with him a lot. He lit the fire in me so to speak. He was a true "carver" and made some really wild stuff. Some were huge with thumb holes in them. He teamed up with a guy by the name of Passman who did the marketing all over the Midwest.
Unfortunately he was found murdered in a Kansas field some years later.
Chas.

[Bobostro61]

I LOVE the melting wax look on a few of those. Something to really test the shaping skills. Those are some awesome pipes. Especially for your early ones. You've got quite an artistic talent there. I'm impressed.

[MonsieurLabo]

Nothing funny at all. I like your style a lot!

[potholer]

i really like the animal carved pipes

regards

dave

[Alden]

Walt, I have seen quite a few of your pipes before but a lot of those are new to me. I really like the Amphibians, really nice work on that salamander !

[jmoss]

Well this is art for me...Very good job...Bravo

[badger685]

Those are some of the most beautiful and awesomely strange pieces of functional art I have ever seen. Truly amazing pipes. What I'd like to know is what some of your first pipes ever looked like.

[WCannoy]

Thanks for all of the compliments... but all artistic aspects aside...

Nobody commented on the fact that the fit, finish, and standards of fine craftsmanship were overall lacking, especially in my very early work... which was really the point of the post. When I started making pipes, there was no pipemakers forum, I didn't know any other pipemakers, I had never been to a pipe show or seen a high-grade artisan pipe in person. All I knew of pipe making was what I deduced from browsing the wall at my local Edward's shop (and the few low-rez pipe photos that were floating around on the web in the late '90s...)

I had no real standards by which to improve my work... nobody to tell me that my stems weren't bent right, or my buttons were too big, my stain ugly, or my sanding needed to be improved.

Then again, somehow I still managed to sell pipes. Maybe those artistic aspects were worth something after all...?

[The Smoking Yeti]

Walt, I cannot imagine trying to learn this trade without guidance like this forum. So props to you for powering through the dark ages!

[WCannoy]

Walt, I cannot imagine trying to learn this trade without guidance like this forum. So props to you for powering through the dark ages!

It's much easier when you are not aware of all the things that you're not learning!