Frank Axmacher

Frank Axmacher is a maker who took up pipemaking in his forties and quickly became a name recognized within German handmade pipe circles. Coming to the craft by way of stone and wood sculpture gave his work a disciplined sense of form from the start; he builds his pipes with the eye of someone who thinks of the block as something to be carved away.

From Craft to Pipes

Axmacher's birth year is given in sources as 1963. He lives and works in Germany's Bergisches region, around Solingen-Remscheid, an area known for its cutlery trade. Starting from his school years, he underwent a long course of drawing training that ran until 1982, followed by a stonemasonry apprenticeship completed between 1984 and 1987. Stonework became his main livelihood from the late 1980s, joined in the mid-1990s by courses he took in wood sculpture. His participation, in the early 2000s, in the exhibitions of a sculpture park in his region marks a period when he worked more as an artist than as a craftsman.

His turn to pipemaking dates to 2004. By his own account, the starting point was a chance encounter with an image of a volcano-shaped pipe. He acquired most of his knowledge on his own, settling his technique in the early period through working days spent at the workshop of German maker Bertram Safferling. The chance to later work alongside renowned carvers such as Rainer Barbi and Tom Eltang brought his work closer to the line sensibility of the Danish school.