His pipes certainly do not seem to reflect his workplace, where every tool is in its proper place on the wall, where every block of briar wood is labeled and there had better be nothing overlooked, and where even dust has problems settling on the floor. Yet, some pipes have such unusual shapes that they seem to have been picked straight from the garden, from one of the pots that line the swimming pool. Others look as if they had emerged from the wind battling with fire. Yet others give the impression of time slowing down into a block of wood. So different from Axel’s creative process and daily life that if it were not for Axel’s moustache curling up at both ends, which Axel rolls between thumb and forefinger when he is not smoking a pipe, you could think it highly unlikely that Axel and his pipes had any connection.  Rainer Barbi, his mentor, had already understood this, and Axel says that he owes everything to this master craftsman, without whom he could never have become a proficient pipe maker...read more