Talbert Pipes- New Talbert Briars & bamboo-shank mortas

[Trever Talbert]

Greetings to everyone on the mailing list!  I'm writing with good news - 
I've finished the order for Elephant Foot shapes and have posted three 
new sandblasts to the catalog to see here:

http://www.talbertpipes.pair.com/briarcatalogblasts.shtml

I'd hoped to have four, but one became so interesting in the shaping 
that it ended up being set aside to become one of this year's Halloween 
pipes (it had a really interesting curving grain flow that fitted an 
asymmetrical shape).  My next projects will be some unusual 
churchwardens and, finally, a Talbert take on the popular blowfish shape 
for a special order (as with the Elephant Feet, these days I try to do 
several examples for each order so I'll have some to post for public 
sale as well).

There are also three new bamboo-shank Morta Classics posted, one blast 
and two smooths:

http://www.talbertpipes.pair.com/mortacatalogsmooth.shtml
http://www.talbertpipes.pair.com/mortacatalogblasts.shtml

I've really started to like these pipes - I think the black stems and 
black bowls make a great contrast with the pale bamboo sections.  Also, 
being morta and not needing stain, there is no need to use divider rings 
between the bamboo and the bowl so the designs are kept simple and 
elegant.

We had a great July 14th here.  Each year Herbignac has a huge festival 
out by the park lake, with Celtic music, munchies, a big tent serving up 
fresh moule/frites (mussels cooked in herbs and served with homemade 
fries), games, and a great fireworks display.  I hope to eventually post 
some pics of this to the 'Life in France' site, which has been pretty 
dead lately.  This owes to several factors - life is pretty stabilized 
here now and thus not so chock-full of interesting stories, plus it is 
summer and the beaches are calling....  much more fun to play in the 
surf than sit in the office working on non-paying stuff :)  I mention 
the fireworks display for another reason, however.  For some months now 
I have been turning over an idea in my head that would essentially 
advance my creative approach to pipes to the next level beyond the 
Halloween work.  It would be a huge and vastly complex undertaking, 
though, and I finally told Emily my ideas while we were lying in the 
field waiting for the fireworks to start.  She thought it was a good 
idea, and it really got my mind going - in fact, I blanked out 
completely on the first five minutes of the fireworks simply because so 
many pieces of the idea were dropping into place at once.  This is as 
much as I'm going to say about The Project for the time being, though I 
mention this because over the next year it will probably start taking up 
more and more of my working time.  Still don't know if it is even 
feasible, but we'll see.  I'm approaching the idea exactly as I 
approached the Halloween pipes, which is to say, it's something that *I* 
think is really fascinating and I'm basically going to do all the work 
for my own fun, and then see if anyone else likes it (if there's a loud 
thump noise in 2007, that would be the general public's total 
disinterest...).
Thank you for your time!
-- 
Happy Smoking,
Trever Talbert
http://www.talbertpipes.com