An Artist’s Soul: Pipemaker Luigi Viprati

 

(Tobacco Business) Luigi Viprati says that he’s retired, but he has a damn funny sense of retirement. While he’s no longer putting in the daily grind of work each day to produce the 1,500 or so pipes he used to make each year, he’s still committing a good amount of his time inside his small workshop in Pontoglio, Italy, refining the art he loves most.
Instead of donning his fishing cap or buying a set of golf clubs, Viprati is spending his “retirement” passionately pursuing and perfecting the craft for which he has become world-famous—and he is now aiming to produce just 100 pipes of his best quality each year. Anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting the Italian pipemaker, who is now in his mid-60s, wouldn’t expect anything less from him. Continued