Keresaspa (Saeed Nazarli)

Keresaspa is the name under which Saeed Nazarli (b. 1991), who works in Tehran, signs his pipes; the maker himself is also known by this name within the community. The scale is small: records put the workshop's output at around thirty pipes a year. Nazarli's wife also makes pipes, under the name Atin.

A Self-Built Workshop

Nazarli took up pipe smoking in 2010 and soon became a keen reader and researcher on the subject. He was among the founders of the Iran Pipe Club, wrote articles on pipes and tobacco for the club, and, according to records, served as its president from 2012 to 2018. His education began in chemical engineering and continued in architecture; before turning to pipes he also spent a period apprenticed to a luthier.

His decision to make his own pipes grew out of a combination of interest in handcrafted work and curiosity about where such work departed from factory production. 2015 was spent gathering materials and finding a workshop where he could rent a lathe for a few hours a week; the first pipe was finished the following year. No single master trained him: magazines, books, online forums, maker interviews, and production videos were his only school. These were the years when domestically handcrafted briar pipes were only just being introduced in the country; the first pipe from the Pasargadtabac workshop had also been shown in autumn 2015.