At the Richmond Pipe Show I had the pleasure of meeting Tonni Nielsen. Tonni is a very interesting, articulate, and outspoken guy and a living legend in the artisan pipe world. He started carving pipes as a teenager at W.O. Larsen learning from and carving along side some of the very best. He is a musician and has also been a tennis pro...a man of many talents and passions. He has been living in the USA for many years now with his lovely wife and raised a family here.
We met again at the Las Vegas show and had time to smoke several bowls and drink a few barley based adult beverages. We talked about many things including the possibility of a pipe using some of the amber/acrylic that Tonni sourced from Denmark, the same stuff used in some of the highest grade pipes from Larsen.
As some here know I have been building a collection of Sea Creatures. I asked Tonni if he would be interested in carving one to add to my aquarium. He suggested the possibility of a sting ray and sent me a photo of this pipe which was fairly well in progress, including the ebonite stem (he graciously made a amber/acrylic stem as well). The angles from which those two photos were taken led me to think that it was the sting ray shape to which Tonni had alluded. In fact it is a whale, especially when inverted.
One way or the other Tonni has created a piece of pipe art that will always be one of the crown jewels in my collection .
I will be smoking it soon and will report.
I have never seen a pipe that makes so many different impressions, depending on the angle of view. Here are four looks.
We met again at the Las Vegas show and had time to smoke several bowls and drink a few barley based adult beverages. We talked about many things including the possibility of a pipe using some of the amber/acrylic that Tonni sourced from Denmark, the same stuff used in some of the highest grade pipes from Larsen.
As some here know I have been building a collection of Sea Creatures. I asked Tonni if he would be interested in carving one to add to my aquarium. He suggested the possibility of a sting ray and sent me a photo of this pipe which was fairly well in progress, including the ebonite stem (he graciously made a amber/acrylic stem as well). The angles from which those two photos were taken led me to think that it was the sting ray shape to which Tonni had alluded. In fact it is a whale, especially when inverted.
One way or the other Tonni has created a piece of pipe art that will always be one of the crown jewels in my collection .
I will be smoking it soon and will report.
I have never seen a pipe that makes so many different impressions, depending on the angle of view. Here are four looks.
