TotemStar
TotemStar is the brand of artist Gunnar Weber-Prada
I was born and am living in Los Angeles, California. I have been an artist for most of my life. Visual communication by illustrations, paintings, photography or filmmaking have been my primary work. I have always had an interest in pipes, though never explored them until my late 30s.
I started with making pipe T-shirts, acrylic pipe racks (The Pipe Monolith) and later started working on pipes. Two years after starting to learn about making pipes, the very first public showing was a large pickaxe freehand (Pipe 001), at the Los Angeles pipe show. The positive critiques encouraged me to continue in the craft. Pipe nomenclature is all within an oval. Stem nomenclature is the RedLine logo on the mouthpiece and a reiteration of the grade near the shank in the form of copper, silver, gold or platinum dots.
Pipes from the first two years of production. Note the much thicker early version of the RedLine stem logo on pipe 001.
In May of 2007 I went the the Chicagoland Pipes and Tobacciana show. Here I met with many pipe makers from all over the world. They encouraged me and I ended up visiting with the american artist Lee von Erck who gave extensive in-shop guidance.
In late 2007 I created the Icon pipe tamper shape, made from solid aluminum. In May of 2008 the icon was released in copper at the Chicagoland show. 2009 now has the Icon also made from steel and brass, with more developments on the way.
Gunnar Weber-Prada Los Angeles, California USA E-mail: souljer@mac.com Website: TotemStar