The Shalosky Effect
Functional sculptures more than a pipe dream for local artisan
By Kate Liebers |
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Bill Shalosky has a handlebar mustache, shaves with a straight blade, and tends his wounds with paper towels and duct tape. He wears a tackle vest, favors dogs because "cats eat your face off" when you die, and screams at the politicians on TV. The Gadsden "DONT TREAD ON ME" flag hangs on his wall, and he drinks stouts while listening to news radio.
Shalosky is 25 years old and crafts pipes for a living.
"I'm a dirty old man in a young man's body," he said.
Shalosky - the featured pipe maker at Smokers' Haven - is part of a movement among those under the age of 30 to claim what has generally been associated with grandpas and hushpuppies. The Shaloskian passion for pipes is a savage one.
To step into this artisan's house is to enter a dark cove of sin-taxed luxuries.
"Most of my income goes into expensive pipes, fancy tobacco and fancy beer," Shalosky said.
Indeed, bottles of stout beer line the kitchen cabinet like trophies; jars of loose tobacco are bountiful. Yet most impressive is Shalosky's display of 35 pipes from around the world. Composed of materials from corncobs to porcelain, with stems ranging from bamboo to buffalo horn, the pipes in his collection are varied. He has a porous meerschaum pipe, which glows as the tobacco blazes. He has a Japanese kiseru the size of a thumb. He has a "sitter" pipe with a flattened floor - Shalosky prefers to call it a "stander"
Bill Shalosky
Photo: Christopher Atwood
When it comes to pipes, Shalosky doesn't differentiate between craft and art.
"Artisans made functional objects and nowadays they end up in museums," Shalosky said.
A 2006 graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design, Shalosky said, "I want to think that I'm making sculptures that hang out of people's mouths."
Of course, more than a mere connoisseur of pre-museum quality functional objects, Shalosky is a craftsman. If Shalosky finds a pipe he can't afford, he said he tries to reproduce it himself.
The Shalosky style is in the details. He might fit a ring of exotic wood near the shank, or work with legal mastodon ivory. All his pipes are made of briar - most have a sandblasted texture - and the stems are hand-cut from ebonite.
Above all, however, Shalosky said the pipes' performance is his priority.
"I'd rather have a shitty looking pipe that smokes great than a great looking pipe that smokes like shit," he stated.
His practice as a pipe artisan started his sophomore year at CCAD when he began frequenting Smokers' Haven, a High Street tobacco shop. Before he graduated, the owner, Premal Chheda, challenged him to create his own pipe. When Shalosky returned with the product, Chheda offered him a job.
"I'm afraid to make a pipe now," Chheda said. "He's surpassed me quite a bit."
In addition to creating the Chheda store brand, Shalosky is developing his own style and his own clientele. While he establishes his own reputation among the pipe artisan community, he said he will keep the prices relatively low for good business. Standard beginner pipes range from $25 to $65, while more refined pipes can cost several hundred. Shalosky's pipes now sell for $200 to $400.
But perhaps not for long, as this artisan has big plans for introducing his continuously improving product. Shalosky is currently working on a signature shape, called the Zebra Foot, which resembles a hoof with a flat edge. He's also working on a signature stamp reserved for the "best of the best" - a coiled rattlesnake inspired by the Gadsden flag.
"The 'Don't Tread On Me' thing is a little 'screw you' to the tobacco tax and other sin taxes," Shalosky said.
Yet when it comes to such "sinful" smoking recreations, Shalosky emphasizes the difference between cigarettes and pipes. Whereas cigarettes can become a habit, this tobacco enthusiast said that pipe puffing is more of a hobby.
"Pipe smoking is about the relaxation, same as cigars," Shalosky said. "You don't inhale. It's about the taste; you get hardly any nicotine. You don't do it as a habit. I could quit right now."
But not before he creates the perfect pipe: one worthy of the Shalosky snake stamp.
Smokers' Haven
2475 N High St.
(614) 299-2442
Originally Published: July 1, 2009
