Tag Archives: Native American Pipes

Getting Ready for the Western Design Conference…

westerndesignconferenceEach Fall here in Jackson Hole a Conference is held that is one of the elite places for Functional Art to be displayed, sold and judged.  The Western Design Conference is the premier place for artists like myself to showcase their best art.  This fall I will be entering one of my pieces to be juried and judged by the best of the best.

I have chosen the theme for my entry and I want to share with you my journey over the next few months.  This years entry will consist of two art pieces incorporated into a single entry.  This year I will enter a pipe and a flute with a common theme running through the whole piece.  Below is a drawing I have made for the pipe that I will start today.  The flute will also be started this weekend and this will be one of the toughest projects I will undertake.

Each art piece will have a custom-made bison leather case that will in their own right be beautiful components of the whole project.  This Art project is available for purchase.  Delivery will not be available until after the Western Design Conference has completed in early September.  If you have interest in this project for your home or business reach out to me at “timjen333@gmail.com”.  Follow me on this journey and see how it goes…

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Native American Pipe Commission…

Honored…

In the past couple of day I received a phone call and was commissioned to craft a new Native Pipe that will be used later this year in a ceremony where the pipe is scheduled to be blessed at ceremony and given to a special recipient.  The tribe who has commissioned this pipe is the Western Ojibway tribe from Ontario Canada.  This is a real honor for me to have been selected by the elders to make this special pipe.

Many of you know that Peyton and I live in Jackson Hole most of the year and we now live south of Jackson Hole on the south side of the Snake River in an area call Hoback Junction.  We are at the end of the road on 5 acres and the Snake River is about 100 yards to the north of our property.

This past weekend my wife headed into town for some errands an at the end of our driveway and along the Snake River there were two large male Bald Eagles sitting in some Cottonwood trees.  She saw them immediately and stopped to watch them and they just looked at her as she got closer to them.  They did not fly away like they normally will when approached. She stayed with them a few minutes and moved on.

When she told me this I knew I had to stop what I was doing and work on this pipe for as long as I could this weekend. I have been amazed at the progress as I have been able to completely rough out the design, I have attached the picture at the top of this post for you to look at.  This looks to be a beautiful piece of stone and when all shaped it will carry the deep solid red color desired in a Catlinite Stone (als called Pipestone).

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The Inspiration For This Commission

A few years ago I crafted a special pipe seen in the picture above.  This pipe has never been smoked and it is stored with Sage inside the bowl.  This pipe has a wonderful story behind it and it is one of my favorite pipes I have crafted.  This very picture was found by some elders in the Ojibwa Nation and it was the genesis of the commission I am working on now.  These types of projects are the absolute best to work on as they will in the end fill a very important role in someone’s life.  I can only hope that my talents and craftsmanship will meet or even exceed their expectations.

I just wanted share the soon to be blessed stone as well as share a little of the story here.  If you have questions or would like to reach out to me email me at “timjen333@gmail.com” or give me a call at (307) 690-0427.  Have a blessed day!