Joao Reis

Joao Reis is one of Portugal's first internationally recognized contemporary pipe makers. Born in Lisbon in 1978, Reis started not with pipes but with wood; he began working as a furniture carpenter at fifteen and years later carried that skill into briar. Given that Portugal has no deep-rooted pipe-making tradition, his workshop's origin owes less to a continuous craft lineage than to personal curiosity.

From Carpentry to Pipes

Reis's first contact with pipes came through collecting; in his youth he began collecting pipes and entered the circle around the Lisbon-based Cachimbo Clube de Portugal (Portuguese Pipe Club). By records, his own first attempt at carving a pipe with his own hands also began in this circle, in 1998, with a single piece he made for a friend from the club. At that time the workshop lacked most of the equipment specific to pipe making; work was carried out with a limited tool set carried over from carpentry. Even so, production continued, and the pursuit soon stopped being a spare-time hobby.