Fear not, aesthetes. The days of eyesore smokeware, traditionally made from glass, are no more. (The same goes for dispensaries.) Today, artisans and designers are bringing minimalist, modern designs into their handmade ceramic pipes. These five brands produce contemporary ceramic pipes that take each toke to new heights.
Liam Kaczmar combines his love of aesthetics, marketing and cannabis to create Summerland, described as “a lost hideaway for sun seekers, wave worshippers and coastal daydreamers.” Summerland’s ceramic pipe offerings come in the form of Fruit Fantasy and Crystal Voyager. Intentionally multi-functional, the all-white pipes are unassuming in their design, reading as elegant home decor fixtures. Each product is made with cone 5 ceramic, and is lead-free and applied with food-safe glaze.
Say hi to Yew Yew: an assortment of stylish and pastel-coloured pipes conceived by prop designer Jenny Wichham. Much like other design-driven brands, Wichham’s desire was to cultivate a THC experience that existed outside of the garish aesthetic that she’d become accustomed to. Designed in Portland and made in New York, Yew Yew’s geometric triangle and half circle pipes are eye-catching smokeware that “yew never have to hide.”
There’s a playfulness in Victoria Ashley’s Canadian-owned Laundry Day products, especially with “Tanjun.” Tanjun is Japanese for “simplicity” and what better word to illustrate the nature of the pipe? Mindful of its design in and out of use, the Tanjun Pipe, which was originally made from white unglazed clay but can now be purchased glazed, is an Instagrammable gem – a three-step staircase in miniature.
Toronto native Leah Lavergne centres movement in the creation of her High Noon products. Each pipe is born from a hand-built clay sample turned into a plaster mold, then cast in stoneware and glazed. Because of the highly hands-on nature of High Noon products, each one is subject to a slight variance in colour and texture, which promises a unique look. High Noon’s four items presently in their inventory — 8 AM, High Noon, 10 After 6 and their collaborative High Noon x Tokyo Smoke — are available in a selection of white, black, speckle, pink and grey colourways.
MIWAK JUNIOR‘s contemporary ceramic pipes resemble pebbles that you’d find near a lake. Inspired by “Pre-Columbian cultures, Space Age wonder, and the clean minimalism of Japanese design,” Chilean artist Sebastian Boher and partner Alice Johnson Boher design with discretion in mind. Created with a combination of natural, coloured and porcelain stoneware, MIWAK JUNIOR pipes are finished by being reduction fired.
These five handmade designs leave past pipes in the dust.