My name is Gerardo Papalia, I was born and raised in Genoa, in north-western Italy, and when I was 15 I started working as an artisan carpenter's boy. Since I have been developing a deep knowledge in the creation of objects out of wood, a fantastic material rich in possibilities.At the time when I started the job we did not use sophisticated and complex machinery for the manufacturing of the wood, quite the opposite everything depended on the artisan's inspiration. Yet it was the man I was working for as a boy the one who initiated me into this work, teaching me how to move the first steps in the methods and techniques of this activity.Many people went in and out of his shop, and among them I was particularly interested in one little old man, who used to come with some little pieces of a strange wood, which he worked with extreme passion and precision. What he was working on was the root of the tree heath (Erica Arborea), from which he extracted very big pipes with a wonderful grain-.As he saw I was interested, he asked me if I wanted to follow him more closely in the process of creation of a pipe: I accepted without hesitating, and the experience was exciting.After a while he stopped coming over, but still nowadays, when in special occasions I smoke that pipe, I perceive the smell and flavour of that moment in the past.I have been producing handcraft made pipes for few years, having a personal preference for free shapes and briar, working it so to carve from the wood unique objects for their details and particularity.The website shows the different phases of the production of a pipe, from the gathering of the briar knot to the polishing of the completed pipe
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
