August 27, 2007

Well folks, I’ve just returned from a trip back to my old stomping grounds in the Midwest.  It’s been quite a while since I was last in Ohio.  It was, in fact, my first post-college home when Melissa and I were first married and lived in Canton.  Actually, it was the Columbus show of 2004 where I first showed my work to a small group of pipemakers and collectors.  Quite a lot has happened in the meantime, so it was wonderful to return and visit the good NASPC folks again. 

You will find one new pipe posted in the Showroom section of the site.  This straight pot returned with me from Columbus so is now being offered on the site for sale. 

My next show is at the end of September in Richmond.  For those of you who will be attending, I look forward to seeing you there. 

Take care and happy puffing!   

Jeff

August 14, 2007

Hi there again, everyone.  As many of you already know, the Chicago Show was extraordinarily successful for me this year.  As such, I have had a flood of special orders that I’ve been working on ever since.  The number has been reduced somewhat, but there still remain a good amount.  Those orders in combination with desire to offer pipes to my retailers with some degree of regularity and the upcoming Fall Pipe Show season have left me with almost nothing to offer via the website.  I’ll do my very best to offer at least one piece per month through the website, but unfortunately cannot make promises.  But, for those of you who will be able to attend the shows, I would love to catch up with you or meet you there.  Here’s the schedule so far.

August 24 — Smokers’ Haven Pre Show, Columbus, OH
August 25 — NASPC Pipe Show, Columbus, OH
Sept. 29-30 — CORPS Show, Richmond, VA
Nov. 3-4 — Kansas City Pipe Show, Kansas City, MO
Nov. 10 — Northern California Pipe & Cigar Show, Merced, CA

It’s going to be a busy Fall, but I’m looking forward to getting out on the road and meeting some “Pipe People,” as my lovely wife refers to us all.  J

Take care, and happy puffing!

Jeff

June 2, 2007

Well, it looks like I’ve gotten around to updating the News page just in time to prevent it from being an annual update.  I try to be somewhat consistent with site updates, but I never seem to get around to updating the News page along with it.  Well, I made some broader changes to the website today that I thought were newsworthy.  I have finally updated the Links page.  This was long overdue as some of the links had become dead, so they’ve been duly changed.  You will also notice the addition of my two new dealers to the page; Smokingpipes.com and Scandinavian Pipes.  I’ll be sending pipes to both of them periodically.  Additionally, I have added a link to the site of my good friend Brad Pohlmann who has just launched his beautiful new website.  Be sure to head over and see what Brad has been up to.  He’s a fantastic pipemaker and his work is worth seeing.

I have more website changes and updates in the works for the near future, so keep your eyes open.

Cheers,

Jeff

July 26 , 2006

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted anything to the website.  In fact, it’s been a while since I’ve been in the shop consistently.  Following this year’s Chicago Show, I packed up my shop and home and we moved west.  After a month of chaos, I was finally able to hit the shop again and start making some new pipes.  One advantage of my new location (besides the view!) is that I’ll have ready access to sandblasting equipment.  My good friend Jody Davis has let me move some of my equipment (including my compressor) into his shop in Yuma.  So, I’ll be spending several days every month with Jody in the J. Davis workshop making and blasting pipes.  

Five new pipes have been added to the showroom.  Four are already sold, but I thought I would post them to make sure those who wanted to see them could do so without missing them.  I’ll move them to the past work section soon, though.  One new pipe is available though, called the Dagon.  A great shape that I think you all will enjoy seeing.

Finally, I thought I would put out word that you all can keep watching for the launching of my new grading system.  I’ll post updates as I am able to let you all in on the news.

Thanks for looking!

Jeff

March 13, 2006

The first NY Pipe Show of 2006 was a success!  It was well attended by collectors and retailers alike.  I arrived early in the morning to set up my table and had a brief opportunity to browse through some of the fine offerings presented by Premal of Smoker’s Haven and David and Janice of R.D. Field before the show began at 10am.  I would have loved to have taken more photos than I did, but was so busy throughout the day chatting all things pipes with the attendees, that I was unable to make it all the way around the room before the show concluded.  However, I was able to snap a few nice shots in the rare brief periods of calm that periodically presented themselves throughout the day.  Please head over to the Show Photos section of the site to view some of the pictures that I took of this show.

I’ve also added another new pipe to the showroom.  This is only the 3rd sandblasted J. Alan Pipe that has ever been listed on the website, and only the 4th ever presented to the public.  This unique piece possesses qualities coveted by collectors, as the briar is absolutely flawless, has beautiful straight grain subtly visible through the blast, and is complemented by a beautiful, thin stem made of vintage stock cream-colored Bakelite complete with a thick ring of pre-ban elephant ivory.  These rare materials combined with the unique briar make a wonderfully rare piece that will surely fit into any collector’s rack with comfort.  Add to these attributes that the piece weighs in at just over 1 oz. and you might have found yourself the perfect sandblasted pipe.

Thanks again for checking in at the site. 

Best regards

January 24, 2006

I’ve just recently discovered that the scale that I had been using to weigh my pipes was inaccurate.  The pipes had been unintentionally misrepresented.  Fortunately this inaccuracy was to the advantage of the buyer as the pipes they received were slightly lighter than advertised.  Spurred on by the features of my new scale I’ve added metric weights and measurements for the most recent pipe, The Spade, and will continue to offer this information for all future pipes.

Another feature has also been added to the site recently.  Please visit the “About” section of the site to see the new Workshop section.  I’ve put together some photos of my workshop and tooling that I took in the fall of 2005.  Many other pipemakers have photos of their shops on their websites, so I thought that I would invite you all to take a virtual tour of my shop.  Each of the photos will have further descriptions of the machinery and procedures added in the future.

I hope that you enjoy the added information. 

December 11, 2005

There have been several people who have been kind enough to publish about J. Alan Pipes in the past year or so.  I’ve finally tracked down the interviews and pipe reviews about which I am aware and created a resource page on the site to showcase them. Visit the new Press link in the navigation bar to access these publications.  

Thanks for looking!

December 8, 2005

It has been a very busy few weeks.  In the several weeks prior to the new Pipe Spectacular hosted by the NY Pipe Club, I spent every spare moment in the workshop preparing new pieces to take with me.  Although these pipes were not offered for sale on the website, you can view photos of them in a new Pipe Show Photos section of the site.  I am happy to announce that I sold out at the show.  However, that clears out the available pipes section so I’ll have to get back to work to refill it.  Keep visiting the site or, better yet, sign up for the mailing list, because I will be posting many new pipes as they become available over the next five weeks of my winter break.

Also, after having received several questions regarding my nomenclature, I’ve decided to create a page on the site dedicated to this subject.  Please browse over to the new Stamping section to see it.

Thanks again for viewing the site!

Happy Holidays!

November 11, 2005

It’s been a busy week finishing up a few pipes, but I’ve managed to get a rudimentary Past Work section of the site live.  Many photos of pipes I’ve produced in the past are available to be seen there now.  The photos, at the moment, do not lead to other pages or other views, but I hope to change this very soon so that you all can see each piece from a variety of angles.  This site is set up for all of you, so if there are suggestions lurking about in cyber-space, please direct them my way.  Thanks again for looking and please stop by again. 

Cheers!

November 6, 2005

Wow, 9 months since the last website update! Let's hope that doesn't happen again! Well, the site has had its first major overhaul.  It may look minor, but it was major to me.  I’ve taken over the maintenance of the site, and in order to do so had to learn a bit about web design (imagine that!)  For those of you who commented about the site’s previous incarnation using Flash, your comments have been heard and that component has been completely removed, save the intro page (because I like it) which now has a skip option.  Otherwise, there are still a few kinks to work out and I’m working on picture standardization so that the backgrounds are not wildly different between pipes in the gallery, but otherwise, this is the version of the site that you will see for quite a while sans a few additional pages of information that I think might be interesting to display.

On the pipes side of the business, here is an update.  For those of you who did not know, I spent 3 months out of the country this summer fulfilling an internship requirement for my graduate program.  I returned home in mid-August having neither laid hands on briar nor put lips to ebonite for more than 12 weeks!  I was then faced with the job of securing a new workshop space; a task which took 3 weeks longer than expected.  Upon moving in, I was faced with minor headaches like reconfiguring, some minor retooling, and the acquisition of some new materials (Bakelite) and furniture. Now, nearly  three months after reentering the country, I have finally settled in to the shop and am making pipes on a regular schedule.  

Many pipes have sold since the last update. However, several new pipes are available for sale at this moment. Please head over to the showroom to view them.

Thanks for dropping by! 

Best regards

February 14, 2005
Happy Valentine's Day! I'm not sure that this bit of news is related to Valentine's Day themes, but then again... J. Alan Pipes have received some love from some French pipe smokers! That's right, the land of love has shared a little with me. Fumeurs de Pipe, a pipe collecting website, has just added an interview and several photos of some J. Alan Pipes. Please browse over and check it out at
http://www.fumeursdepipe.net/pipiersGgracik.htm. I've also been honored by having one of my pipes used as the front page banner for their yahoo group which can be viewed here, http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/fumeursdepipe/. Thanks to Guillaume
Laffly, who heads the site, for including me in their project!

Cheers!