Since 2015, the American Pipe Making Exposition has been an annual Smokingpipes tradition that showcases the work of US-based artisan pipe makers, as they create pipes specifically for that year's theme. Previous years have focused on accenting materials or finishing styles, with last year's expo themed around bamboo, but for 2020, we took a slightly more nebulous, philosophical approach. For this year's theme, we asked carvers to fashion pipes that represent their artistic influences.

Much like the United States as a country, American pipe making is a beautiful convergence of differing ideas, styles, and voices — a melting pot of aesthetics in which the influence of other design traditions and the styles of carvers from other countries have mixed and melded to create something unique and special in its own right.

As it stands today, artisan pipe making in the United States has seen many of its most prominent and respected makers draw inspiration from Danish artisans, like the Ivarssons and Jess Chonowitsch, as well as Japanese masters, like Hiroyuki Tokutomi, who himself was deeply influenced by Danish artisan pipe making as a student of Sixten Ivarsson. Also present is the influence of old-school French and English marques and their creation of classic pipe shapes and proportional standards, upon which all of pipe making is founded.

Even further, as this current iteration of American artisan pipe making continues to grow and progress, US-based carvers have not only looked to Denmark and Japan for inspiration, but they've also influenced one another, through tutelage and inspiration. A number of more experienced artisans have opened their workshops to beginning carvers for mentoring over the recent decades, both sustaining and increasing the world of artisan pipe making while also indirectly propagating personal stylistic elements.

As a global network, the world of artisan pipe making evolves and changes, with carvers reenacting the design cues of artisans before them who, in turn, were experimenting with aesthetic elements of carvers before them. Each iteration retains a hint, a flavor, an aroma of those previous influences, all while maintaining its distinct individuality: This is American artisan pipe making as we know it today.

For this year's 6th Annual American Pipe Making Exposition, our featured artisans honor this tradition and pay homage to their inspirations. Some makers manifested this theme by emulating the styles of artisans whose work has influenced them, while others drew inspiration from iconic pipe smoking personalities and creative mediums unrelated to pipe making.

See the entire collection for yourself and appreciate the evolution of artisan pipe making, and the influences that have shaped today's American artisan pipe makers.