Brighton James Pipes
From the Brighton James Pipes website: I am Brighton James de los Santos, pipe maker, product designer, and surfer on occasion. For the last five years, I have been hand crafting artisan tobacco pipes at a small shop in Southern California.
My initial instruction in pipe making came five years ago under the guidance of Domenico “Mimmo” Romeo while traveling in Europe. In this time, the foundation was laid for the mindset and tone of the work that I now create.
In my work, I seek to bring about the marriage of unparalleled design sensitivity with exceptional engineering to the contemporary artisan pipe, and I craft pieces for the pipe collector who values and understands that the character of my work cannot be separated from the character of my self. Objects, in and of themselves, bare no intrinsic value. Rather, objects are given value by the people that interact with them. It is my objective to fortify the relationship between the collector, the pipe, and myself.
The contemporary artisanal pipes, which I make, represent an expression of my philosophy and a documentation of my journey. The time and energy I invest is ingrained into each piece I put forth, and the form and lines are things which uniquely resonate with me throughout the pipe making process. As a designer, I carefully utilize the language of design and grammar of engineering, in an effort to mutually enable form and function to interact. By understanding the ways in which design can be manipulated I am able to produce sensitive work that is unique in the world of artisan pipes.
In my shop, there are some unique methods and processes that I use during the creation of a pipe. From Danish hand drilling to proprietary finishing methods, every technique and tool in my shop is utilized to refine the development process. Combined with specific material choices, this allows me an environment that is conducive to my own creative expression.
At the heart of this is one piece truly worth mentioning, my 1946 Logan metal lathe. I am the second owner of this piece of machinery, which I was lucky enough to pick up from a woman whose husband originally built the lathe and used it for the production of parts he used on his personal aircraft. When I received it, it still had a photo of the original owner the day he finished the build. I take great pride in the fact that this machine is still in use after nearly 70 years.
- You may also enjoy listening to Brian Levine's interview with Brighton James on the Pipes Magazine Radio Show
Contact Information:
Website: http://brightonjamespipes.com E-mail: EmailContact@BrightonJamesPipes.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightonjamespipes/