MarTelo (Gustavo Cunha)

MarTelo is the pipe workshop run single-handedly by Brazilian designer Gustavo Cunha. The brand name comes from the Portuguese word martelo, meaning "hammer." Production continues at a limited number of pieces per year, with each pipe shaped individually; as a result, rather than a fixed model catalog, the work consists of independent, one-off pieces. The workshop is considered one of the most internationally recognized among the small number of contemporary makers in South America.

From Furniture Design to Pipes

Cunha's relationship with wood began long before pipes. He grew up in Diamantina in the state of Minas Gerais and is said to have trained his hand around age fifteen making traditional bows and arrows. He completed his university education in design, specifically furniture design. His first serious attempt at pipes came after graduation, while working for a furniture manufacturer where he had access to a machine shop: freehand experiments not bound to a mold, distantly recalling classic English shapes.

The event that set his direction was his visit to the workshop of Danish master Tom Eltang in the final months of 2013; according to the record, this meeting took place in October. After returning to Brazil, Cunha purchased the necessary bench and equipment and moved into full-time pipe making in April 2014. Both Pipedia and the brand's own promotional text agree on this date; some interviews state the transition occurred in May.

Style and Material

The line of MarTelo pipes is described at the intersection of two traditions: the Danish school's fluid sense of line and the Greek workshops' neo-classicist sense of proportion. Cunha says he spent time in Greece with Chris Asteriou and Konstantinos Anastasopoulos to advance his craft, and that he was noticeably influenced by the work of young Greek makers. The resulting pieces are regarded as interpretations that keep classic shape families recognizable while playing with their proportions.

Material is the brand's second area of focus. Cunha works only with long-cured briar blocks. The blocks he uses come from suppliers Makis Minetos in Greece, Mimmo Romeo and Manno in Italy, and also from Algeria. Sourcing blocks from different regions at once leaves a wide range of choice in grain texture and hardness. As is customary in one-man workshops, every stage from block selection to mouthpiece work comes from the same hand, which is also the main factor keeping annual output low.

Today

The workshop is located in the state capital, Belo Horizonte; although some promotional pages cite the maker's hometown of Diamantina as the address, most sources agree on Belo Horizonte. Because production is small in scale, the pieces reach mostly an international collector base. Cunha describes his goal as sustaining the culture of pipe smoking and making objects that will not be discarded, that age together with their owner.