A few weeks ago I took a short pottery class. It was about horsehair raku & lasted two days. Every student was allotted enough clay to make two small projects. The first project was, of course, a "pot"...at least two students wound up making small round birdhouses instead. My pot was more like a round, slightly lopsided vase. Now in every pottery class, there's always at least one guy who makes a pipe. I'm convinced this is true everywhere in the world, or at least in Western countries. In the class I was in, I was that guy. (Also, I made three things instead of two)

I didn't make it for the usual reasons, however. I rarely ever smoke weed; the only time I do is if I'm with other people & someone has some stuff to share. It's not something I care to buy. I don't have a tobacco habit, either. I made the pipe in memoriam to my late father. One of my childhood memories of him was of him smoking his pipe...it was a briarwood one, if I recall correctly. What I remember for sure was dad with his pipe clenched between his teeth, & the smell of tobacco smoke. He's been dead for many years now...the night before the first day of the pottery class, I'd been thinking about him. Thus I was inspired.

After firing & applying horse hair to it on the 2nd (& last) day, the instructor accidentally dropped it. The pipe hit the floor & broke in two. It wasn't the worst accident since I was able to fix it after bringing it home with my other pieces. I epoxied the two pieces back together; after the pipe was whole again, I wrapped hand-twisted jute string around the crack with more epoxy to reinforce it. If you don't have any two-part epoxy in your home, you are underequipped & need to go buy some. With it, you can fix damn near anything.

This, along with the pot & other object, was one of the first things I made out of earth clay since high school. Yes, I know it shows.

July 2024 Edit: The pipe is in a private collection. I don't have it anymore.