Jared Coles: Sandblasted Little Maker with Bamboo and Epoxy (with Stand) Tobacco Pipe

Since 2015, Smokingpipes has hosted the American Pipe-Making Exposition, celebrating the ingenuity and talent of artisan carvers across the United States. However, in 2024 the Exposition expanded to include all pipe makers around the world — the Global Pipe-Making Exposition, the first of its kind. Though broadened in participation, the Expo's format remained consistent with previous years: Artisans designed and fashioned pipes centered on a singular theme, distinct to each year, expressing the motif according to their own creative visions. For the first Global Pipe-Making Exposition, we returned to the Expo's very first theme: bamboo.

Typically, this style of speared pipe is part of an aquatic, fish theme, but in Jared Coles' case, he's taken a different, otherworldly route. He took direct inspiration from Frank Herbert's Dune saga, featuring an eccentric piece of bamboo and modeled after Shai-Hulud, aka the Maker — the giant sand worms from Herbert's sci-fi classic. In this piece, the gnarled bamboo comprises much of the pipe, with the head fashioned from tanblasted briar and the plateau-rimmed tobacco chamber resembling Shai-Hulud's open maw. The pipe's spear aspect extends from the hand-cut vulcanite stem to pierce the bamboo, extending to a pointed end. Moreover, this pipe is a functional Cavalier: The airway extends all the way through the bamboo, which is capped by vulcanite. Both functional and aesthetic, the cap acts as Shai-Hulud's furled and pointed tail while also being removable to drain the Cavalier's collected moisture from smoking, and he shaped it to perfectly align with the irregular and divot-laden nature of the bamboo. Lastly, Coles accented the bamboo's myriad knuckles with glittering, blue epoxy. Offering a bright and vivid embellishment, the epoxy's color also honors Dune as it matches the longterm, blue-eyed effects of Spice consumption, and the entire pipe is completed by a pinewood stand shaped to resemble Arrakis' duned landscape.