Tobias Höse (Bonsai Pipes)

Tobias Höse is a German maker who presents his pipes under the name Bonsai Pipes. According to the brand's own profiles, Höse lives in the southern part of the state of Brandenburg and pursues pipe making alongside his primary occupation.

After smoking a pipe for many years, he decided in 2016 to make his own, quickly assembling the necessary bench equipment and beginning production. In the time since, his name has come to be counted among Germany's contemporary handmade pipe benches.

Origin of the Name and Founding of the Workshop

The brand name comes from the maker's pursuit outside of pipes: Höse is interested in growing dwarf trees, that is, bonsai care. The patience, measured intervention, and attention spread over a long period that this pursuit requires are described, in the maker's own account, as a way of working he carried over to the pipe bench as well; the brand name comes from there. Höse announced his first pieces through social media, and his sales network and dealerships grew out of the expansion of this initial circle.

Among the influences the maker himself acknowledges are Dirk Heinemann and Kelvin Pohler and Thorsten Klemme, who run the CO-Pipes bench. This places Höse within a generation that became distinct in Germany during the 2010s: makers working not from a mass-production tradition but from individually worked bodies, taking their proportions largely from the Danish school. Höse is also said to have produced collaborative work with Heinemann; since this information rests on a single promotional text, it has not been confirmed by independent record.