Your Collection: Mostly Traditional or Non-Traditional Shapes?

[mso489]

As I thought about it, it occurred to me that it would be pretty challenging to get more than few pipes that weren't in some sense traditional, especially if you'll give me the point that freehands are traditional by now. To try to get entirely pipes that defy associations with traditional shapes would be quite a task -- I'm not saying impossible, just quite a task.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

MSO, my interpretation is that traditional refers to an understood set of proportions, not just a list of names, like billiards, dublins, and bulldogs, etc...

So, you can have bulldog that is traditional, as in this set...

Or, they can get more experimental, within the perimeters of the genre. And, then they are "non-traditional" in their shapes.

 

[crashthegrey]

That's funny Cosmic, I purposefully named traditional shapes because of the vagueness of "traditional" to be more specific, but your last post made me even less specific. My pipes tend to be traditional versions of the billiard and bulldog families.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

My problem with billiards, is that when they play with proportions of that shape, it becomes something with a traditional name... apple, ball, brandy. So, it doesn't leave itself very open to artistic interpretation. That, and they just look like something some square 1950's dad would smoke. ::

 

[crashthegrey]

My love for billiards, is that when they play with proportions of that shape, it becomes something with a traditional name... apple, ball, brandy. So, it doesn't leave itself very open to artistic interpretation. That, and they just look like something some square 1950's dad would smoke. 8)

 

[sablebrush52]

Cosmic has it correct. It's not just about names, it's about the proportions, which were well understood and fairly rigorous. Even the variants, such as billiard chubby, or billiard curvet, followed proportions for shaping.

 

[crashthegrey]

Which is to say, I like to judge a maker by their execution of the billiard and get an artistic pipe later based on that judgement.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Crash, I hear that a lot, and it just sounds stupid to me. If I want a bulldog, I judge the maker on how he plays with those proportions of the bulldog. If a maker makes a fantastic billiard, that doesn't make a flippin' difference on how he handles the bulldog shape. :crazy:
I think when people say that, they mean that they use that artist's billiard as a way to rate the artist overall against other artists. It doesn't necessarily mean that they will excel at other shapes, just because they can do that one really well.

 

[crashthegrey]

As a pipe maker, I can see a lot of their skill in the shaping of a billiard. It really makes a difference to me to see what their base line skill is and where their strengths lie. But I also really like a good billiard, so some of that is certainly personal.

 

[crashthegrey]

That being said,

that doesn't make a flippin' difference on how he handles the bulldog shape

is an incredibly accurate statement. I could argue a few other shapes, but the bulldog is so much different, even requiring a completely different lathe setup and, depending on bent or not, may barely see a lathe. I'm not saying my way is right for everyone, but it works for me.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I think we agree, it just took you a minute to see what I am saying, ha ha.

 

[crashthegrey]

Take slow to begin with and multiply by Monday.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Ha ha!!

 

[mso489]

Cosmic, interesting point about variations within a given shape, and how that can also be non-traditional. Sixten Iversson's design for the Stanwell pot is sort of a squashed hemisphere, very un-potlike. My Peterson B11's are often currently sold as volcano shaped, but used to be consistently sold as brandy shapes. Under this revised definition, many of my pipes tend toward non-traditional. I haven't quite figured out if my Kaywoodie Drinkless Ruf-Tone us a pot, author, or what.

 

[saltedplug]

In other things like architecture my tastes are more wide-ranging. I love art deco as well as gothic. But in pipes my tastes are very boring. billiards, etc. I find that lattice Konstantin Shekita in the OP's post hideous as it has no discernible shape, and is thus a blob whose only achievement is to be covered with holes while not imploding. BTW, still on sale at smokingpipes for the paltry price orf $1600.00. I guess they price it per hole.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

IMO, we tend to have a disorder that makes us constantly want to pigeonhole everything and pigeonhole, within pigeonholes. . Some names are just overkill, IMO, Brandys, Rhodesian bulldogs, zulus, etc... We could probably understand each other perfectly with only about five pipe shape names to describe the entirely of all pipe shapes out there.

 

[crashthegrey]

I like the use of ridiculous names when we are actually trying to describe a pipe to each other, as in the brandy, my favorite being one that looked just like my favorite brandy snifter but inverted. I don't think we need to try so hard to actually classify them as such, though.

 

[mso489]

The words/reality schism will always be there, but words used well can bring the object or thought within range, sometimes.

 

[saltedplug]

The words/reality schism will always be there, but words used well can bring the object or thought within range, sometimes.

Well said! To expand a bit, the outcome of nature/nurture predisposes us to the experiences that we will have, fate/destiny, the outcome of which is that we each have our own definitions for words even though the assigned meanings are in black and white in the dictionary; the upshot of which is that communicating by words is subject to idiosyncratic natures.

 

[olkofri]

In other things like architecture my tastes are more wide-ranging. I love art deco as well as gothic. But in pipes my tastes are very boring. billiards, etc. I find that lattice Konstantin Shekita in the OP's post hideous as it has no discernible shape, and is thus a blob whose only achievement is to be covered with holes while not imploding. BTW, still on sale at smokingpipes for the paltry price orf $1600.00. I guess they price it per hole.

Same here.
And nicely written! Haven't read something like that since Wolfe's From Bauhaus to Our House and The Painted Word.