HJ-20-004

Valera Starostin was born 1973 in the city of Yalta, Crimea, Russia. Later at 2005 he moved to in St. Petersburg, where he is still living. He is a metalsmith artists and knows well how to from the metal to make artistic shapes and even metalsmith jewelry. He started to make the briar smoking pipe at 2012. At first, like most of the pipe makers, it was just a fun for him. But soon he found his talent. After carving some pipes for himself and his friends, he starts to develop his ability to carve and form the pipes. Meanwhile he learnt more about the technique of making the pipe from the famous carvers. Most of his pipes are self-designed and based on his inspiration. If you look at his work you can easily understand how he developed fast so that soon he became able to carve some very nice hand well-designed pipes. Regarding the material he is mostly using the briar, morta and ebonite in his works.