Vauen Auenland Eron without a stand

Hi all,
This is my first post and for it I wish to share what I recently did for my newly acquired Vauen Auenland.
As you may know, "The Shire" is a line of very long (+30cm / 12-13 in.) rounded mouthpiece churchwardens Vauen made in the spirit of the Lord of the Rings. They are not replicas, they're "inspired by". They are made almost totally of wood, the bowl is in briar, the stem in beech and the mouthpiece in acrylic.

I am quite new to pipe smoking, but to me, it smokes incredibly.
I fell in love with those and I broke the money pig to get myself one.

They have four models in that line and they all come in polished or rustic finish.
I hesitated a lot, especially between Gilg and Eron.

here is the Gilg:


here is the Eron:


They got 2 more models : Friddo and Hugg.
I finally decided to go for the Eron rustic.
Once that pipe arrived, after I managed to stop jumping around, I realized I had no stand for it, no rack, nothing.

Only the box comes with a hole so that one can kinda show it.

So I decided to do something about it, found some wood, got myself a dremel and ...

here goes:

















then a layer of varnish for some rustic feeling, though I gotta say, I kinda like it better without, but hey ... too late, and it's still nice.











and one last to compare with and without varnish.

Ok so I know it looks like I varnished it with my feet while watching football, I am really not that good at all the woodcraft stuff,

but I learned plenty and it's really gotten me into something really nice and that requires patience, and attention to details.

It was really fun to make.
Next thing might just be this :


And my wife just opened a nice little coffee house she asked me a welcome sign for ... the beginning of a new hobby !!
So what do you think ?
Cheers.

Hey Menuhin, that's very nice to say.

It's just OK though, but I like it.
It's the first thing I have ever carved.

The dremel makes it not too hard, I think a lot of us could do something much better

@Menuhin:
I am originally from Europe, Belgium. but I live in China actually. I have lived here for 4 years and I got it here.

You say they are super popular in here, where do you mean ?

@frozenchurchwarden : thanks for the encouraging message, hope the jaw isn't hurt too bad. I really love that pipe, it smokes quite well, maybe that's also why I wished to give it a special 'home'

@stanlaurel: Thanks a lot for the nice comment. It is a hobby indeed, but it's still too rough around the edges, people are demanding, and I am not sure I'll have the skills to satisfy the demands. Nonetheless, I'd like to learn more, it's amazing to do.

I am planning to do a little pipe rack for my 2 mini petersons that I got recently, they are so tiny :D they deserve protection but also exposure, I'll think of a nice design for them

Say that you would want to commission a new pipe rack, what pipe(s) would it be for ? How many ? What would be the budget?
Not trying to sell anything here, simply feel the wind

Wow, in China seems exotic adventure for you. And do the Chinese have their own tobacco and are these tobacco decent?

I mean in Germany. By 'popular', I do not mean that when walking out of the door, you'll see people dressing like the hobbits and gandalf alike and hanging out smoking their VAUEN Lord of the Ring churchwarden pipes; but it seems to have a solid number of followers at least in Germany.

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@menuhin: China has its own tobaccos, but mostly for cigarettes, pipes aren't too common here so it's not very developed, people will buy foreign tobaccoes (anyway, buying foreign stuff is fancier and chinese like that, they can show their purchasing power)

I didn't know that about Germany. Too bad that nobody walks around in a Hobbit fashion with a meter long pipe :D

Awesome rack!!!

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Luckily everyone knows we talk about pipes...
Thanks for the comment

Carver, you have created a masterpiece to rest your treasures in, that is worthy of them. You are very gifted. I believe you would be the envy of the shire

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Hi okiescout, thanks a lot for the comment. Any special things that you would do different ?