Micah Redmond

Micah Redmond, born in 1982, grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, and has worked in Nashville, Tennessee since 2015 as an American pipe craftsman. He is both part of the production team at BriarWorks and makes a limited number of pipes under his own name. This dual position has made him one of the typical examples in the U.S. of the transition between series production and single-bench craftsmanship.

The Road to the Bench

Redmond's interest in the pipe emerged as an extension of an artistic pursuit he had followed his whole life. He studied graphic design in college, taking drawing and two- and three-dimensional design courses along the way; he considers his interest in sculpture to be the direct reason he turned to the pipe. His account describes his first encounter with the pipe as coming through a group of friends who smoked pipes during rehearsals. What began as a hobby carving turned into a serious pursuit largely thanks to Chheda Pipes founder Premal Chheda, who guided him over several visits.

The foundational knowledge he gained alongside Chheda brought him, a few years later, to a level suited to joining a professional workshop: in 2015 he moved to Nashville and joined the BriarWorks team. Working under the same roof as names such as Todd Johnson, Pete Prevost, and Sam Adebayo increased both his production pace and the number of shapes he experimented with.