Hello, I am Elie. I'm a pipe carver, making hand made, freehand tobacco pipes. I'm living and working in Portugal and in Belgium.
There's not that much to be told about me. I'm a mostly self taught pipe maker who is passionate about this art of carving freehands out of briar, strawberry tree wood and olive wood. As you will notice from the images: I don't stick to one style, one material. I like to stretch the boundaries of traditional handmade pipes.

There is a lot of controversy around my work been noticed on the internet. I can live with that. If pipemaking may no longer be a form of free expression and art, like some conservative pipe smokers (the majority) would like to dictate it, the pipe world would be a dull and dead place where status is the main feature (bragging about expensive standard pipes that almost all look the same).

I'm going on, my own way, trying to renew things. Despite of denigrating and even agressive comments on forums. I'm not claiming to make big art, but trying to create beauty on a few square inches. And I'm grateful to my loyal fans who support me in doing my own thing, away from commercial goals. Theire kind words like "Artiste-pipier", "Elie makes smokeable art", encourage me to follow my own path.

About quality : I have 5 grades.(CHANGED !)
A+ : Highest grade which you will rarely see on this site. 'A+'means to me: 'can't be better'.
A: Technically OK. Be it that my A can be someone else's A+.
B: Small flaws, hardly noticeable.
C: Something went wrong, but it is perfectly smokeable. Maybe the flaw won't mind to you.
R: Reject. In this case, something went horribly wrong, but I hate to throw away a perfectly smokable pipe. I won't forget the times, when I couldn't afford myself a freehand. Today there are still a lot of people in that situation, and theire number is growing. I will loose money on this grade, but I don't mind.

I hope you will enjoy my pipes and my site. Thank you for visiting and bookmark me please.