December 22nd - This time the new Yule pipe is a red sandblast. Took a lot longer to get finished than I'd hoped - Too many holiday activities going on!

December 16th - One more Yule pipe posted, this one green, and also the first sandblast available. The next one is in progress and it looks like it will be a red blast - Hope to have it up within a few days.

December 8th - Just posted the first of the 2011 Yule pipes to be offered for sale! More will follow as quickly as I can manage - The next one will be a sandblast, and should be ready in a day or so.

November 29th - There's a very small catalog update today - 1 new Ligne Bretagne posted. I had three, but two of the others sold before I ever even wrote this front page intro! The new LB, however, is not the big news, which is the announcement of the 2011 Talbert Yule Pipes. Here's a photo collection of the first one finished (Already sold):

I've been olding off on making any announcements about these until I knew exactly what it was we would have to offer, so here is the first example. Each Yule pipe is a Talbert Briar, and they will come in alternating smooth and sandblast finishes with alternating green and orange/red stains. The stems are handcut from German black ebonite, and each is fitted with a solid brass band made here in our workshop, drilled and cut from brass rod and hand-finished in a brushed texture. Each pipe is hand-etched Yule on the shank, and stamped with its number in the series (1 to however many are made) as well as the year of production. Yule pipes will also come with a custom-sewn pipe bag, which I'll post photos of as soon as we have them ready. I will be working on Yule pipes for the month of December. I do not have a set number in mind - Realistically, it will probably be ten or less, but it just depends on how well they go together. I will post them to the catalog as they are finished, and send out notices by email and Facebook/Twitter/G+ when new pipes are available. I'm sorry in advance, but I have decided it's better to not take any reservations or orders for these - That always slows the process down and we're getting started on the pipes so late that if I'm going to get any number of them done at all, I need to work on them pretty much uninterrupted all through the holidays. When a lot of orders come in for projects like this, it tends to bog down the works... A pipe is finished, the next guy on the list is sent photos, a day or two passes while he decides if he wants it, it may end up passing to the next fellow, and so on. If I want to get the bulk of these to their buyers before Christmas, that's just too much delay in the system, so instead I will post them and ship them as they are finished. It's a lot more enjoyable for me that way, too, because juggling a lot of requests gets confusing fast, and I want to have as much fun as I can with this project. Yule pipes should be happy creations, after all!

November 8th - Five more new pipes! Four new LBs, one new Goblin. This may be the last post of new Ligne Bretagnes for some time, too, as we are going tomorrow to meet with a local silversmith about the time and costs of getting a custom-made Yule pipe band set done for a set of Talbert Yule pipes - The first Talbert Yules since 2000! Or maybe 2001, I can't remember... But in any case, it's been many years since the last high grade Talbert Briar rolled out of here with a Yule mark. If all goes well, that will be pretty much all our work for the next 6 weeks, so I hope these new LBs will last a while, because there may not be any new ones for some time.

October 22nd - Five new Ligne Bretagnes are up! It's a good mix too, with two bulldogs, a super nice cutty, and a couple of bents. This should give us a bit of site inventory for a while, as I finish up the Halloween pipe I've been working on and we debate the idea of a Talbert Yule pipe again...

October 12th - Happy October, everyone! We are back from the CORPS show and I've just posted six new pipes to the site - Four Talbert Briars and two new Goblins. Several peope have asked me about Halloween pipes. Sadly, there won't be any this year - I still owe a couple of them for past requests and I'm going to get those finished before I do any more. However, this is still going to be Goblin month, with as many as our little shop can turn out. Keep checking in and I will post them as they are made! I've even sketched a happy little site mascot for this month, up there on our torn scrap of paper (If you still see a pipe image there, try refreshing your browser). I hope everyone is having a great month, and if anyone needs any inspirational late night movies to get in the proper spirit, I suggest checking out my sister site for horror movie reviews, Kentucky Fried Popcorn. Have a GREAT month, folks!

September 30th - Three new Ligne Bretagnes posted! This will be our last site update before CORPS. I hope to see lots of friends new and old at the show in Richmond next week!

September 21st - Some new pipes posted! We're still working half-and-half on pipes for the site and pipes for the CORPS show, but I've managed to post three new pieces to the site. There is a gorgeous new Talbert Horn freehand as well as two new Ligne Bretagnes. I hope to get some more LBs up before the end of the month, but this is probably the last of the higher-end pipes until after the show, as I want to take more Talberts with me than LBs.

In other show-related news, I've just received in a box of brand new David Enrique pipes, which I will also have for sale at CORPS. David is a really nice, and very talented, French pipemaker that I became friends with while we lived over there, and I'm trying to help him out a bit to put his pipes in front of American collectors. So, even if you don't care about MY work, stop by our CORPS table to see some nice little exotics from overseas! :) With only four available, I expect they will sell quickly, so look for the big Pipe & Pint table sign when the doors open!

September 10th - More new Goblins! Site updates will be sporadic this month due to working on pipes for the CORPS show. I'm trying to stick to a schedule that will give the website some scattered-but-steady small updates while at the same time making a few pieces to set aside for the show, to try and avoid once again being the guy who has two pipes on his table. This year I may have four!

August 31st - New Goblins! I know a lot of folks have been asking me when will the next Goblins be posted, so here they are. It's perfect timing to celebrate the onset of Autumn. I'll probably make many more Goblins all through September, alongside the pipes we'll be taking to the CORPS show. Also, there's a dashing new Signature grade Talbert Morta, dubbed the Elan, that combines black Breton morta and a bleached white briar midsection to create a beautiful and elegant freehand original. And finally, in the "Pens & Misc" section, check out the three new briar fridge magnets - Emily has been goofing around with our briar cutoff pieces in the evenings, and created these three handy decorative bits for the true pipe nut.

August 21st - Following up that last update, I've just posted four new Ligne Bretagnes to the site. That's it for the LB updates for the moment, though I'll get back on them sometime next month (Or possibly sooner, depending on how quick these sell).

August 18th - More new pipes! I've just posted two new Ligne Bretagnes and also the pipe that a lot of folks have been waiting for, that large-size Talbert Morta freehand that I posted the preview pics of on our G+ and Facebook pages. Possibly the last large, smooth pipe of Breton Morta ever... Check the pipe's description for the full story. I have several more Ligne Bretagnes in process, so look for another update in the next couple of days that will be all LBs.

August 9th - One small update this evening! I'm working on several new mortas and have the first posted now in the Talbert Pipes catalog page. This is the pipe that I've been posting "Making of" photos about to our Google+ and Facebook photo albums. (Speaking of Google+, I'm impressed - The service has only been online for a month now and already I nearly have as many people in my Pipe Circle as I have Twitter followers. At this rate there will be more people getting dedicated pipe news from me on G+ than on Twitter by early Fall) The other new pipe is an unstained and unfinished Ligne Bretagne sandblasted "Pumpkin", an octagonal shape that's always popular.

August 1st - I realize the site has been quiet for a couple of weeks longer than usual, but it's going to be another week yet before I have anything new to post here, as the end of July was spent getting ten new Ligne Bretagnes ready for our retail friends at Pipe & Pint - See my blog article on the subject here, along with a couple of preview pics. It's nice to have these folks back in the online business!

July 18th - Firstly, let me wish a belated Bastille Day to our French friends across the pond! I actually managed this on the day on Google+, but alas, our website updates don't occur daily (I wish!). I've just posted four new Ligne Bretagnes to their catalog page, and two new Talberts also. Included among the LBs is a sandblasted churchwarden with a teak stem ring, the first churchwarden available in a while. The two Talberts are a smooth, high-end Rhodesian and a sandblasted, bamboo-shanked morta.

There are two other pieces of news also - For one, our Paypal shopping cart system now offers Paypal's Bill-Me-Later payment plan as a option. People have asked me many times over the years if they could make payments on pipes, and the answer has always sadly been no, as we are just too small and too hand-to-mouth a business to provide free credit. However, anyone looking to break up the purchase price of a pipe can now split it up via Paypal's system - Just look for the Bill Me Later option during checkout:

In other news, I've expanded into another social network. On top of our existing website, Facebook business site and Twitter business feed, I've set up an account on brand-new Facebook alternative Google+. Here's my profile. Google+ will allow me to do something Facebook always was troublesome about - Better separate my personal and business lives. I'm sure most of the pipe people who friended me on Facebook were hoping to hear pipe talk, and while there has been some, I imagine they are not particularly interested in my beach trips, my movie reviews for Kentucky Fried Popcorn, or any of the other wacky writing I do. Google+ allows one to split their posts into circles by interest, so with Google I can easily filter my outgoing status updates as pipe-related, personal, etc. Pipe folks on G+ are encouraged to add me and say hello, and I can put you in my Pipe Circle, where you'll get all the latest news of Talbert website updates, sneak previews of pipes in progress, and so forth.

July 4th - Happy 4th of July to all our American friends and collectors! To celebrate in a pipe-ish way, I've just uploaded four new pipes - a new Ligne Bretagne "stubby" and three new Talberts, one of which is that elaborate expansion chamber Cavalier design I've been posting previews of on our Facebook and Twitter accounts. Sandblasted morta bowl, briar body, Somali meerschaum chamber interior, custom-poured cast acrylic base... It's certainly the only one of its kind on the planet, I think it's safe to say. I hope everyone has a great holiday! (And no one gets accidentally set on fire...)

June 7th - Big update! I've just posted four new Ligne Bretagnes to the catalog - 3 standard shapes and one Collector (Also, the last Collector for a while, per the pipe's description). Also, I've posted that Morta & Meerschaum Talbert Calabash that we've been talking about in the blog and elsewhere - Check out all the various photos on that one, it's quite an unusual piece. And it isn't the only new Talbert, there's also a tall-bowled Cuttlefish to see. Now it's back to the workshop to try and finish up a few more Talberts yet this month - The next couple of months should see more Talbert Briars produced than the first part of this year, so fans of our highest grade work should have plenty to look at.

June 7th - One small update - Unfortunately, a past sale fell through on the handcarved pair of green briar & stone earrings that Emily made, so they available again on the "Pens & Misc" catalog page. Super nice bit of jewelry there, in my opinion.

May 30th - OK, I at least managed to squeeze in one more update before the end of the month, if *barely* before. Four new pipes posted, fresh out of the workshop! There are three new Ligne Bretagnes (Two Collectors and one standard billiard) and one new Goblin. Enjoy!

May 25th - Wow. Somehow it has managed to be nearly a month since our last update. It's been a busy month, though, what with all the work on my 21st century Calabash project and the other new pipes I've just posted - Click away in the links up above, because there's something new in every category, for once. I've posted a new Talbert Briar, a new Goblin, 7 new Ligne Bretagnes, and also a tamper and some fun pipe jewelry. Enjoy!

April 29th - New pipes, and new jewelry on the "Pens & Misc" page! Continuing on in the run of Ligne Bretagne Collectors I talked about in a past blog entry, I've just posted four new LB Collectors and one standard shape to the Ligne Bretagne catalog. Five more Collectors to go and I'll have exhausted that box of blocks I drilled so long ago, and we get a block of storage shelf space back, hurray! It's been a lot of fun to just pick a box of briar and work like this, though, without the usual hassles of hunting for specific blocks for specific projects. I think the pipes themselves have been of better quality and more creativity, just from the fun of it. There's another Bear Claw shape for everyone who liked the first one, and a really beautiful smooth, among others. I've listened to the votes from our customers in the blog poll I posted ten days ago, and the message regarding Ligne Bretagne has been loud and clear - Raise prices as needed but keep the current production quality and the current quantity produced. In light of this, I've adjusted the LB pricing for standard shapes, in the first of two price changes to help soften the jump. I'll see if they continue to sell now, and go from there (The main concern to me is that it's very easy for people to vote "Maintain quality and raise prices as needed", but whether they will actually continue to buy at raised prices is another question entirely...)

Another new item for the site is the return of Emily's handmade jewelry! She's been too busy with the business accounting to spend much time doing jewelry or pen work for months now, but she's recently set aside some time to work on some new jewelry designs that can be crafted from our briar and morta stock, and which we'll be posting over coming months. The first example right now is an elegant pair of green briar & stone earrings just posted. More to come!

April 21st - This is only marginally pipe-connected, and is not something I will regularly be posting about on this website, but for those who may be interested, I've finally posted a project that's been kicking around in the back of my head forever - My own movie review site. I've mentioned movies and genre influences in blog articles and pipe descriptions before, and I figured what the heck, it could be fun. PLUS, I have no shortage of material since I've been posting movie reviews to a small forum I participate in for several years now, so there are plenty of back reviews that I will be copy/pasting over in the next few weeks. Maybe you'll enjoy, maybe you won't, but it's something for me to do as a hobby and have a bit of goofs with. The absolutely epic title of this blog is Kentucky Fried Popcorn, which sums up everything that the blog is about (and if you have further questions, see the About Me page on KFP).

April 19th - If you have a chance, check out our redesigned Pipe Blog. I've been meaning to change its look for a while now, to make it better resemble the colors and layout of the main website. It is, I hope, simple and elegant, and carries a couple of big improvements. For one, the search function now works (It has been lousy for years now) and also, the comments are now working properly again. So go post some comments! I've also posted a big article about the current news of Ligne Bretagne, including a pretty important poll that I'd like pipe buyers to give me some feedback on. I'm hoping to get back into posting to the blog, at least more than my current once-a-month schedule, and the redesign is the first part of this.

April 18th - Major Ligne Bretagne update! I've just posted six new pipes to the Ligne Bretagne catalog, five of which are Collectors (Why so many Collectors in a row? See my blog post here) There's also a nice ring grain black sandblast standard shape.

April 8th - I've just posted some pages on the "Pens & Misc" catalog for a couple of my art prints now for sale. Both are available in framed & matted print form on acid-free stock, and the printing and shipping is handled by our Cafe Press web gift shop. I wasn't crazy about the tiny size of their image presentations, though, so I have added bigger preview pages on our site here, along with more detailed descriptions of each print and what it's about. I do eventually plan to post some very nice pipe sketches this way, and possibly some Halloween art, we'll see. It's a side project, so it will all depend on how much time I can devote to changing the inventory around. You can see the first two prints on the Misc page HERE, and here's an example link to one of the item pages where you can see and read about the art.

April 7th - Just posted three new Ligne Bretagne Collectors. I'll be writing a blog article about these shortly, as soon as I've finished sending out the email notices. There will probably be some more LB Collectors coming this month in addition to more Talbert Briars - The reason is not due to any sudden increase in Talbert Briar rejects, but rather in my trying to clear out some old inventory space found during this year's tax-time inventory counting. I have a box of blocks set aside over the years to be LB Collectors, all blocks that for one reason or another weren't going to be Talberts, but which were plenty good enough to make nice pipes from. In many cases I drilled bowl chambers in them and set them aside to age a few years more, but I'd like to reclaim that shelf space in our tight storage room, so I'm going to see if I can't turn a lot of them into pipes this Spring.

March 30th - New pipes! I've just posted a new Talbert Briar green Toadstool to the Talbert catalog, and five new Ligne Bretagnes to their catalog - Including one new Ligne Bretagne rusticated Collector, which our Twitter followers have seen the working photos of lately.

March 23rd - Now that the pipe raffle is over, it's back to business as usual for me, but let's please NOT forget about the situation in Japan. Given the short attention span of our TV news services, I expect it to drop out of the top stories any day, especially now that the situation in Libya is escalating, but the aid agencies in Japan are going to continue to need money for some time to come, so please keep contributing directly if you are able.

For my part, we have new pipes on the site, the first in a while! I've just posted four new Ligne Bretagnes (Two sandblasts, two smooths) and a new Talbert Briar freehand. Check them out!

March 20th - Just posted the raffle pipe winner - Check it out on the Japan page!

Counting down to the raffle winner now... I'm leaving it open till after dinner tonight to collect any last minute ticket purchases, and then I'll pick our winner. Check the Japan page for up-to-the-minute news!

March 16th - Very Important News - To help the survivors of the recent horrific events in Japan, I am donating a grade 4 Ligne Bretagne Oom-Paul I just finished as the prize for a pipe raffle we are holding. Please click on the Japan Aid link here or above to go to the pipe raffle page, where you can buy tickets for $20 per ticket. On Sunday, March 20th, I'll draw the winning name from a hat and the winner will receive the donated pipe as his prize. ALL proceeds from this raffle will be donated to Global Giving's Japanese Aid Fund, an international aid organization devoted to getting essential shelter and supplies to the victims left homeless and in need.

March 15th - Important News! - We are no longer able to accept orders or special requests for Ligne Bretagne pipes. For the full story, see my blog entry on the subject.

March 10th - New pipes! In addition to the ring grain Talbert billiard mentioned in the last note as a between-updates addition, I've just posted four new pipes - Three new Ligne Bretagnes and one exceptionally nice Talbert "Chihiro" shape, a smooth freehand horn that shows off some absolutely stunning grain. The folks following our Twitter feed got a little advance preview of this last night, and those curious about the steps involved in making a Talbert freehand like the Chihiro can look back over the past few days of photos to see many stages of the creation process. And speaking of Twitter, I want to say thanks to all the folks who have signed up to follow our workshop tweets! I've been having a good time posting the various pics of in-process work, and I hope everyone else has been enjoying seeing a bit more of what goes into each pipe.

March 7th - One quick note - The latest Talbert sandblasted billiard is available again, as the initial sale didn't go through. I know several people expressed interest, so check it out here again!

March 1st - New pipes! I've just posted two new Ligne Bretagnes and a really stunning Talbert Briar billiard sandblast to their respective catalogs. That's the Talbert that I've been posting Twitter pics of, during its creation. Also, those of sharp eye will notice a change over in the sidebar to the right - I've replaced our old personal Twitter feed with our new workshop feed, as well as upgrading the look of the box so people can more easily get to our workshop page and follow our tweets. I talked about this in much more detail in the recent blog post, "Doing the Social", but wanted to make a mention of it here also. Basically, it's so I can use my personal Twitter account for entirely non-business use and reserve the Talbert workshop account strictly for pipe stuff... The never-ending battle of the self-employed to separate work from life! Anyway, you don't need to follow our tweets, you can simply check in to this home page every so often and scroll through the recent updates to see the pics of what pipes are in the works. I hope it will help give our buyers and fans a more intimate look at what we make and how it gets made.

February 17th - Five new Ligne Bretagnes posted! These will probably be the last LBs for at least a week, as I've got several Talbert Briar orders to work on. I'm trying to get enough pipes on the site so I can set aside some dedicated time later in the month to work on some long-delayed projects. Unfortunately, tax-time isn't helping, bleagh. I keep reminding myself that if I were still in France, it would be five times as complicated and three times as expensive and take 3 months to get done, but still, I'm definitely ready to not be thinking about expense sheets any more for a while. The wonderful life of the self-employed... :D

February 9th - Four more new Ligne Bretagnes! Just thought I would surprise people with a mid-week update after this chain of Sunday night updates. It's also a bit nicer to be posting website work on a pleasant work day afternoon instead of at 11pm on a Sunday night. Of the new pipes, we've got another grade 4 blast - After several years without ANY sandblasted Ligne Bretagnes qualifying for a grade 4, now I have two within a week! Briar never ceases to amaze and amuse me. This one is an always-popular bulldog, to boot. Check out the new pipes, and thanks for your time!

February 6th - A small update for this Sunday night. I've posted four new Ligne Bretagnes in the catalog, including the first-ever grade 4 sandblast. A sandblast that's graded higher than most of the smooths? Yep. Check it out, it was a great stroke of luck in briar and is something to see. Also, I have continually forgotten to mention this, but the sharp-eyed among you may have noticed a new addition to the site - There is now an RSS feed link over in the right-hand column under the email list link. I'll update our RSS feed with news of site postings, so it can be an alternate way to keep up to date for those who prefer something other than the email list, and also for those who follow RSS feeds via their mobile phone readers. Just trying to keep up with the times! I did have an RSS feed some years ago, but no one used it and I eventually stopped updating it for lack of usefulness, but it seemed like a good idea to reinstate it in this newer age of mobile readers.

January 30th - Here's another Sunday night update. I seem to be getting into a habit of posting the new pipes on Sunday nights, but I'm smart enough not to commit to it as a regular date because I know as soon as I did, something would derail the schedule. New pipes across the board this time! Only one new Ligne Bretagne this time around, but it's a new shape that we haven't made before, a slightly bent Dublin. I found a small bag of these when we were moving and have been meaning to make one ever since. I really like the shape, personally - Very gently curvy. There is also one new Talbert Briar, and DAMN, what a pipe... One of the best sandblasts I've ever produced, IMO. Probably in the top dozen I've made in my career. Really, REALLY blasting-friendly wood and a shape that let the ring grain show to best possible advantage. Finally, I've also posted two new Goblins, after having the Goblins catalog be empty for a very long time. Both are fat, green, and, well, typical Goblins! Hope you enjoy, and we appreciate your visit.

January 23rd - Big update! I've just posted seven new Ligne Bretagnes to the Ligne Bretagne catalog. That should keep us in stock for a while! I was quite serious when I posted earlier about making a concerted effort this year to keep at least *something* in stock on the site at all times, so it wouldn't just sit empty for prolonged periods. We'll see how it goes. The new LBs are a nice mix of shapes and finishes, including the first rusticated LB I've posted for sale in several years, at least since mid-France. Also, there is one new Talbert Briar, a fat, sandblasted "Pug" with a handcut silver band that should make someone very happy. I realized that virtually all the Talberts I've made since getting the workshop going again have been exotic freehands, so I thought it was time to do some classical shapes for a change. Look for some Talbert billiards and bulldogs in the future.

There is one small bit of bad news - Emily has jury duty tomorrow so she'll have the car all day, and I won't be able to ship anything till Tuesday. On top of this, she's currently in pretty ill health, so please pardon me if I'm a bit slower than usual to respond to inquiries, etc, as I'm currently doing all the business stuff myself.

 

January 11th - I've just posted our "Best of 2010" page to the Gallery links, above. This is a minor milestone for me since most of the time in France, I was so distracted and stressed that I wasn't updating the galleries of past years' work until a year and a half after the year in question. It seems positively odd to have this done only 11 days into the new year! The 2010 gallery shows a few of my personal favorite pipes of last year. Hope you enjoy!

 

January 7th - Hello everyone! I hope you all had a happy holiday season and that the new year is off to a great start. I write with news of the latest updates to our website. I've just posted the first Talbert Briar and several new Ligne Bretagnes for the new year. They're a nice mix covering a lot of finishes and grades, from affordable LBs to an LB Collector to a high grade Talbert.

I'll be taking down the website Christmas decorations this evening, so don't be surprised if you're browsing the site and the background wallpaper and banners start changing from page to page! There are also some minor changes to the catalog pages - I've shuffled the Twitter and Facebook Share buttons over to the sidebar, where they are joined by a brand new Facebook "Like" button, just under the email postcard. Now those of you who are on Facebook can voice your favorite pipes, and it will help me see which ones get the most votes and have a better feel for what people like. In future, I may also be setting our site up with Tumblr, and will very likely be adding a Facebook Livestream chat box for occasional live Q&A sessions - I was thinking about possibly setting some times to switch it on and be online to talk live with site visitors, maybe after website updates.

One item that the business gained over the holidays is a graphics tablet, so the quality of our web and promo art should improve appreciably in the future. One of my first orders of business is to go back and do some much superior logo work and artwork for our Cafe Press gift items - There are some cool Goblins t-shirts in the offing, most certainly. Oh, and just to add, there is one handmade tamper in the "Pens & Misc" catalog available, if anyone is looking for an ideal gift item.