Heather Coleman (Dawnmist Studio)

Heather Coleman is a clay pipe maker and collector working in Exeter, in southwest England's Devon region. At her one-woman workshop, run under the name Dawnmist Studio, she produces clay pipe reproductions based on historic examples. Coleman's name is associated less with a brand than with being one of the few people today still carrying forward a craft that has nearly gone extinct.

From Collecting to Workshop

Coleman's relationship with the pipe begins not with making but underground. According to accounts, she began collecting broken pipe fragments she came across on country walks in her youth, building over decades of effort a collection of thousands of pieces. Records indicate the collection spans a wide range, from the late 16th century to the early 20th, and includes examples not only from England but also from Scotland, the Netherlands, and France. Part of this collection has been shown to the public in an exhibition on collecting at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) in Exeter.

Collecting fragments eventually turned into an attempt to remake them. Records indicate Coleman has been making pipes since the late 1990s, and the workshop's actual founding is dated to this same period.

Production Method

At Dawnmist Studio, pipes are made using the press-molding technique, following the historic method. Since two-piece metal molds from the period are now nearly impossible to find, Coleman uses plaster molds, and makes some of her cutting and piercing hand tools herself from modern materials. Making a clay pipe centers on shaping the bowl and stem as a single piece, piercing the stem lengthwise with a thin wire, and hand-finishing the body once it comes out of the mold. The models produced span a wide range, from the small-bowled early forms of the 16th century to the long-stemmed examples of the 19th; this long-stemmed family is the ancestor of the shape known in the briar world as the churchwarden.

Uses and the State of the Craft

The workshop's products are used not only by smokers and collectors but also by period-reenactment groups and by television, film, and theater productions. It is reported that pipes from the workshop have been used in period dramas and stage productions, and that bespoke one-off pieces are occasionally made; however, an itemized account of these commissions does not appear in independent sources.

In Britain, clay pipe making appears on Heritage Crafts' list of endangered crafts under the heading "critically endangered"; by the organization's count, only three masters earn their entire living from this work, and Coleman is named among them. The advanced age of the masters, the unavailability of original 19th-century molds and tools, and a narrow market are the chief difficulties. In this picture, Coleman's workshop is regarded as one of the few addresses that documents and reproduces the everyday pipe type of the pre-briar era.