Silver Lining Briar (Silver Gray)

Silver Lining Briar is the name of the pipe bench Silver Gray runs alone in the Applegate area of southwestern Oregon. Gray is remembered as one of the still-tiny handful of women pipe makers worldwide; her signature has become synonymous with small, geometrically structured bodies.

Before the Craft

Gray's profession before coming to pipes was something else entirely. She worked in accounting for thirty years and for a period ran her own office. Alongside this steady work she engaged in sewing and quilting; these pursuits, resting on measurement, proportion, and surface, are, in her own account, a prominent factor preparing her sense of form in pipes. She has lived in Applegate since 1978.

An Introduction to Briar

Her entry into the craft came through her husband and first teacher, pipe master Brad Pohlmann; the two still share the same workshop today. Gray did not begin by attempting to make a whole pipe, but by doing small experiments on scrap briar pieces. The aim was to learn by hand how the wood responded to carving, sanding, and staining. After these experiments she moved on to studying pipe shapes and drawing her own designs. Her first pipe was a Dublin, which went unsold and stayed with her.