Vladimir Grechukhin

Vladimir Grechukhin (the spelling Grechukin is also found in sources) is a Russian pipe maker and designer working in Saint Petersburg. His relationship with pipes began in the 1970s, when he entered the workshop of Aleksey Borisovich Fyodorov (also written Alexei Borisovitch Fyodorov in Latin-script sources) as an apprentice at eighteen.

Over a production spanning more than half a century, he has been known both for pipes carrying his own signature and for the PS Studio workshop among whose founders he counted; the community regards him as a continuer of the Saint Petersburg school.

Apprenticeship in the Fyodorov Workshop

By the time Grechukhin reached the bench he already brought a background in drawing and form: he had been attending art school since the age of twelve. His teacher, Fyodorov, is regarded as the pioneer of pipe-making in Russia in the Soviet era. Since briar did not grow in the country at the time and was difficult to bring in from abroad, the workshop mostly worked hard woods such as plane and maple, with briar available only in limited quantity. By his own account he stepped away from pipes for a while in the 1990s to turn toward graphic design, returning to the bench roughly a decade later.