Negoita (Rolando Negoita)

Negoita is the name of the one-man pipe workshop run in New York State by Romanian-born designer and metalworker Rolando Negoita. Production was carried out under the name "Atelier Rolando" in the town of Accord, in the Hudson Valley. Within the contemporary American handmade generation, Negoita is known for freehand shapes that step outside the classical vocabulary of forms.

From Transylvania to Parsons

Negoita was born in Transylvania, a region with deep craft roots, and graduated from the Romania National University of Arts in Bucharest. Because ready-made pipes were unavailable in Romania at the time, he learned to work with woods other than briar; his early attempts were made from cherry and rosehip wood. After settling in the United States, he taught metalworking and product design at Parsons School of Design in New York, and in the same period opened his own studio, also producing jewelry, knives, and accessories.

His regular return to pipe making, according to records, dates to the early 2000s. Erwin Van Hove's Go West piece, which introduced the American workshop scene, records Negoita at the time as someone who had only been in the pipe world for about a year. The same piece credits Tom Eltang and Trever Talbert with technical advice that helped him get the smoking mechanics right; Negoita also won the award for best briar exhibit at the Chicago pipe show.