Pipemaker Profile: Rolando Negoita
-
Kevin Godbee - Mar 22, 2012
- 6 min read
Russ Ouellette
For those who are unfamiliar with upstate New York, it’s probably far different than one would think. A number of people I talk to for work seem to believe that upstate is just a concrete-and-steel extension of New York City. Actually, most of this area is forest, mountains, lakes, farms and smallish cities, towns and villages. One other thing that surprises people is that the upstate region is home to a number of well-known pipe makers. In the area around Albany (the state capital) downstate to around the midway point between the capital and NYC you’ll find Paul Bonacquisti, Joe Skoda, the Kaywoodie/Yello Bole/Medico facility and the subject of this profile, Rolando Negoita.
On a recent Sunday, I made the hour-and-a-half trek from Albany south to the Catskill Mountain area to pay a visit to Rolando and his lovely wife, Alexandra. The last 20 or 30 minutes of the trip are through narrow, wooded roads that are spotted with homes and farms, but little traffic.
Please don’t expect me to be objective when talking about Rolando. We’ve been friends for a number of years, and I’ve marveled at his work for an even longer time. I was first struck with his work when I saw a picture of one of his pipes, which was carved to look like a blue whale. The fluid lines and the use of the wood’s grain to enhance the shape of the pipe just stunned me. Little did I know that I would soon meet Rolando and that due to being in reasonable proximity to each other and running into each other at pipe shows, we would become friends.
We sat in the workshop which occupies the entire bottom floor of his home. The area is packed with lathes, bandsaws, vacuum equipment, workbenches and display cases with examples of his pipe crafting and metal work. We were relaxing over a couple of pipes and the comforting glow and warmth of the wood stove.
Rolando and Alexandra are originally from Romania, where he began learning sculpture. Around the same time, he became intrigued by pipe smoking, but pipes and tobaccos were contraband, and were very difficult to procure. He started to make some pipes from fruit tree woods, as briar was unavailable in his country. Around 1990 they decided to come to the U.S., where Rolando decided to concentrate on his jewelry-making, as he saw very few pipe smokers here. Living and working in New York City, he eventually discovered Ed Burak’s Connoisseur Pipe Shop, where he picked up some inspiration from Ed’s work, and Rolando began to make pipes.
 |
 |
If you’re unfamiliar with his work, take the time to visit the galleries on his website, www.atelierrolando.com, which was designed by his wife, Alexandra. If you scan the galleries, it’s obvious that Rolando’s design influences are decidedly organic. Beside the aforementioned blue whale, he has created pipes that have been inspired by the nautilus, walnuts, trees and other natural items. He also has taken visual cues from the art deco style, and he has merged elements from different art forms, rather than from traditional pipe shapes. That said, he still turns out some time-honored styles as well, and they always seem to have remarkable balance and fluidity. In thinking about why Rolando and other pipe makers turn out the classics, I’m reminded of something that Tonni Nielsen said a couple of years ago- "If you can’t repeat the same shape, you’re not a pipe maker." What he was referring to was the ability to make a classic style that had the right symmetry and lines, and I’ve found in talking to some of the finest carvers that they regularly turn out a standard shape as a way to stay sharp.
Because of his metal-working background, Rolando frequently uses silver, copper, titanium and other metals in his designs, as well as making some incredibly beautiful and functional knives. He has even merged the two with his well-known pipe that he calls the katana, as it is shaped and finished with wrappings just like the Japanese sword.
 |
 |
One of the reasons that I dropped in for a visit is that Rolando wanted to me a new concept that he has been working on, called the Conducta series. This idea, which is also being delved into by a number of other pipemakers including Tom Eltang, uses a secondary chamber between the tobacco chamber and the mouthpiece where the smoke enters, swirls, cools and extracts the moisture before the smoke reaches the smoker. To do this, the stem has a very wide, but short tenon with a two degree bias that allows for a snug fit.
 |
 |
 |
Rolando handed me a short rusticated pipe that looks like a section of plumbing. He had made this one for me to try. The pipe, even though it’s rather chunky, is a featherweight, and it only measures 4 ¼ inches in length. He wanted me to really push the smoking characteristics of the pipe, so I loaded a full bowl of my new Virginia Memory #10, and lit up. I had expected a good smoke, but I was in for a big surprise. The first few puffs greeted me with flavor so much more intense than I figured on that I took a couple more puffs to verify that I wasn’t imagining it. This short pipe not only delivered incredibly sweet and smooth flavor, but did so while being far cooler and drier than most pipes I’ve smoked. In fact, I smoked two bowls back-to-back (the second was my other new blend, Virginia Night), which is something I rarely do to avoid damaging my pipes, but that’s what Rolando wanted me to do. Because I tend to push and pull to keep a dying pipe to come back, the heel of my pipes are usually damp enough that I dump the last 1/8th to 1/4th of the bowl. I smoked both bowls clean and dry to the bottom, which I have never been able to do in the past.
 |
 |
 |
We talked a while longer about things like fills and flaws (he doesn’t allow pipes with fills to leave his workshop) and pipe shows (he and Alexandra will be at Chicago and Las Vegas this year, for sure), and enjoyed homemade crepes with fruit filling and ice cream along with coffee, and as I sat there, it struck me that only a few years earlier, I was starstruck to have met Rolando, at yet today, we are friends. But our friendship hasn’t clouded my admiration of his work, and having had the time to visit with him a few times, I’ve seen enough to be even more impressed.
From Romania and little knowledge of pipes to the American Dream of following one’s own path to success doing something that inspires passion, Rolando Negoita’s journey has been a fascinating one, and we’ve been the beneficiaries.
|
Russ Ouellette is the blender/creator of the Hearth & Home series of tobaccos for Habana Premium Cigar Shoppe and www.pipesandcigars.com in Albany, NY. He has been a pipe smoker and blender for over 30 years, and enjoys feedback from the pipe smoking public. You can reach Russ at russo@pipesandcigars.com or by calling 1-800-494-9144 on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9 am to 5 pm and Friday from 1 pm to 5 pm. |
Written by Kevin Godbee
15 Responses
Recent Posts
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 636. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Barry Kane. Barry started smoking a pipe in 1961 when he was 14-years old. Back then it seemed like everybody smoked, and you could buy pipes and tobacco just about anywhere. Barry is a true old-school pipe smoker, sticking to just one blend. See if you can guess which one before listening. At the top of the show Brian will give his take on Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s purchase of Mac Baren and Sutliff Tobacco and their announcement that they will be shut down.
There’s a pipe in my collection that I cannot bring myself to smoke, though I’ve had it for more years than I care to recall. It’s old, or shall I say, well experienced; that experience, that oldness came to it long before it was in my possession. The pipe is an old Comoy’s Grand Slam from the 1940s. The shape (#93), a slightly canted, stack billiard (sometimes referred to as a Belgian) is right up my alley, and it’s a beautiful example of it. It came to me with some wear and tear; nothing unusual for an old pipe, but more the signs of one that has been well loved, smoked a lot, treated as a favorite tool, cherished, in a sense, by frequent use. It’s the pipe equivalent of a vintage car that’s been driven a lot, enjoyed fully and maintained adequately, rather than one kept in a spotless garage, dusted and detailed weekly, brought out only for leisurely Sunday drives, or to be ogled behind the ropes at the next Concours d’Elegance. When it arrived, those uncounted years ago, it wanted a little restoration. Nothing dramatic needed to be done to it, but the stem was oxidized, the finish a little dingy. The cake was even and fairly thin, and the airway was relatively clean, both signs that its previous owner cared for it, but the bowl’s surface was a little drab and dull. It took little effort to reveal its beauty, to show the lovely contrasted stain and interesting grain beneath the old wax. I often think I should do before and after photos of pipes that I work on, but those thoughts always come after the work’s been done. This one would have been a great illustration of how years of handling that can sometimes make a pipe more beautiful, can other times make it just look grungy. Once I’d cleaned up the externals, it was time to address the inside bits. I approach this a little bassackwards, I realize. It would be more sensible to take care of the inside before addressing the outside, but it’s how I roll. If an old pipe isn’t pretty to look at, it’s unlikely that I’ll care much about it, and cleaning is usually the hardest part, or at least the most boring part of any restoration for me. Alcohol and pipe cleaners. Lots of pipe cleaners. That’s why I leave it for last. Sometimes, I’ll even give a pipe a test smoke before a deep cleaning, just for a point of reference. I gave it a sniff to get an idea of what I was up against, and it stopped me cold. There in that bowl was an aroma that I had not smelled in decades. My head was instantly filled with memories of being in the back room of a fabled Berkeley tobacconist’s shop where I stumbled upon a few jars of long discontinued blends. One of them, a blend called Forty and Eight, had the most engaging and unusual scent of any tobacco I’d stuck my schnoz into. It was sweet, but not in a candy store way. There were none of the usual vanilla, cherry, berry or anise notes of typical aromatics, nothing that could be compared to aftershave or deodorant soap, but something almost musky, a little earthy, something exotic. The shop’s owner couldn’t tell me what was in it, how, or where it had been produced. The old blend had been retired before he’d bought the place. The printed catalogue gave no clues, either, other than being overprinted with the word “DISCONTINUED” in bold, rubber-stamp type. (And, I don’t recall it as being “highly aromatic” as the description indicates.) There was still quite a bit in the jar. Being, at that point, an intrepid explorer of all kinds of tobaccos, whether I thought I’d like them or not, I had to give it a try. It was burly based, but also comprised a good measure of virginia leaf, and maybe some other varieties; I didn’t have enough experience at the time to really pick it apart. But, that aroma was unlike anything I’d experienced before or since. It was something now completely lost to time. Until it wasn’t. Memories are powerful things, and there is no sense more tightly bound to memory than our sense of smell. One whiff was all it took to carry me back in time, conjuring a vivid recollection of something long submerged in the inky depths of a subconscious mind. Look, I know as well as anyone that pipes are meant to be smoked, and that many feel it almost sacrilegious to have a pipe and not set it to its intended task. In this case, I simply can’t. I won’t. Ever. Rationally, I am fairly certain this pipe would probably be a great smoke. It was too well loved by its previous caretaker to be anything less than that. My choice not to smoke it is an emotional one, not something rational. Of the thousands of pipes that have passed through my hands over the years, this is the only one to create such a singular and vivid, almost Proustian recollection of temps perdu, of lost time. It revivified a long dormant memory that is mine, and mine alone, and that’s enough. I keep it in a drawer with other old English pipes. In some ways, it’s nothing special, just a nice old pipe. I don’t lavish it with any particular care that arguably befits the hidden treasure that it holds. It’s not in a special box, or displayed preciously in a glass cabinet. Every once in a while, I take it out, point my nose bowlwards, and every time, those memories return just as powerfully as they did the first time. I have no idea how long it’s been since its last owner smoked it, but in the years I’ve had it, there seems to have been very little degradation of the aroma, and that’s […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 635. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with James Ravenwood. James is the boutique tobacco blender of Ravenwood Blends. His blending started out as a fun hobby, and he now has professionally packaged commercially available products with some great tin art. Part of his interest in pipe smoking goes back to fond memories of a retired Navy Veteran that lived on his street while he was growing up that would sit in his driveway smoking a pipe all day. Later, in 2011 he began smoking pipes and soon after started experimenting with mixing different tobaccos. His other hobby, that he has been doing for 30 years, is photography. He takes wonderful photos of outdoor spaces, and still life pictures of pipes and tobacco. You can see them on his Instagram @thebriarfellowship. At the top of the show we’ll have an Ask the Pipemaker segment with renowned pipe artisan Jeff Gracik.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! Or perhaps it is that sense of satisfaction knowing and appreciating you made it to another day. With the world in a kind of rinse-and-repeat history, reminiscent of a Shakespearean play, it is perhaps a good moment to remember some of Pipedom’s philosophers whose cogent thoughts brought light to clear a path in the mists of confusion and confounding opinions. Ok. No gloom and doom. Just some down-home thoughts. Think of times in the past when history was running off the rails. It took our pipe-smoking thinkers (the mind workers of the world) to speak of better pathways to more light. Think for a moment, with a pipe in hand, these wizards of the world and word: Albert Einstein, J. R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edwin Hubble, Bertrand Russell, C. S. Lewis, and Jean-Paul Sartre. All learned and enlightened. They offered wisdom instead of storms of meaningless roads to nowhere. All while smoking their pipes! Maybe especially with the help of their pipes in the art of thinking and philosophy. Recall the words of Mr. E=MC2 when he said, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.” Amen and amen! Dealing with world-rattling events takes a calm and objective view of things, to the Pundit’s way of summing it up. You just don’t go messing around with quantum physics without a calm and objective approach, methinks. Or as the extraordinary physicist Robert Oppenheimer said after he and a team in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Labs developed a way to split atoms into bombs during World War II. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” said Oppenheimer referring to the development of the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. It must be pointed out that Oppenheimer was more of a cigarette smoker than a pipe smoker. Nonetheless, pipes were part of his personality. Now, if you have read some of the great authors of the past and present, their pipes were always nearby. Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be a three-pipe problem at times. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre require time with your pipes to reflect on the existential problems and solutions these authors provide in learned novels and other narratives. Or take Edwin Hubble and Bertrand Russell, philosophers of another world. Pipes are required for reading. The quantum lode of ideas Pundit is attempting to sort out is that our pipes are relaxing and stimulate our thoughts and creativity. Especially in these last months of the year. Many times Pundit has had that light bulb flick on while smoking my beloved pipes. And friends in Pipedom, it ain’t easy to turn on the lights in Pundit’s rock pit head. Now it’s time for a quote from a Pipe Smoker of the Past. Shelby Foote was born Nov. 17, 1916, in Greenville, Miss., and died June 27, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
Thanks Russ,I always enjoy reading about pipe makers. I wasn’t aware that Mr. Negoita was from Romania!
Nicely done Russ and great pics of the shop as well.
Such a great story and a fascinating new pipe style! This kind of craftsmanship and artistry is what attracted me to pipe-smoking in the first place. Thank you Russ and Rolando for keeping this alive.
Excellent read (as usual).
Wonderful “craftsmanship and artistry”.
Thanks Russ.
Seems like we’re in a golden age of American pipe making! Thanks, Russ. See you in Chicago.
Nice article thanks Russ. Rolando does amazing work. I really enjoy seeing the workshops of different artists and craftsman. Great job documenting Rolando’s shop.
Great article Russ. I’m not surprised at Rolando’s background in sculpture some of his pieces almost too beautiful to smoke.
Nice read Russ, thx! I grew up not far from the area. Great place to make great pipes…
Excellent craftmanship, great read !! Thank you.
Those are the most beautiful pipes I have ever seen. Damn. Thank you sir.
Nice story. I am not surprised by Rolando’s skill’ cos Romanians (of which I am one) are famous for their wood carving. What’s really nice is tat the ancient skill has been finally put into something functional. Rolando’s success in a field packed with stars is truly impressive.
Andre Petrescu
Neat article!
thanks!
thanx for the nice feature article. It looks as though Rolando is a true artist. What beautiful pipes. Amazing design and execution
Thanks Russ for yet another outstanding article. For quite a while now I’ve been following the reverse calabash design. The theory of a cooling chamber, similar to the Calabash, Falcons and even Fred Hanna’s air pocket method of packing, makes complete sense to me. At first the aesthetics of the enlarged shank on the reverse calabash design, and its plumbing aspect, were off putting to me, and I hesitated to pull the trigger. But then I stumbled upon Rolando Negoita’s Conducta series, specifically his use of a flared rim to offset the plumbing design, and I was sold on the idea. Presently, I have a commission with Rolando for such a pipe. I am besides myself with anticipation. As pipe smokers today, we are so lucky to be able to communicate directly with the artists through commission work. It’s great to be a pipeman, no doubt. Keep up the great work Russ. You are very much appreciated.
Conducta : Buna treaba, arata super interesant, bravo ROLANDO.
“Pipa Club Bucuresti”