Pipe Dreams
HopStep by Aldo Bakker for J. Hill’s Standard (image: Fabian Frinzel).
Across the world of glass production, cannabis smoking devices occupy a particular niche: a wacky, colourful niche, that largely comprises borosilicate pipes and bongs in cartoonish or psychedelic shapes. It’s an active space, particularly as more countries legalise cannabis for medical and recreational purposes, but the high-art world hasn’t really considered it yet due to enduring stigma. There is, however, a growing need for smoking accessories that can appeal to a wider range of consumers.
J. Hill’s Standard, a traditional Irish cut-crystal maker, is now entering this uncharted space with Pot Variations, a series of cannabis accessories made in collaboration with Amsterdam-based designer Aldo Bakker that bring a more contemporary design aesthetic to cannabis. A curiosity for exploring new functions for glass drives the brand’s founder, Anike Tyrrell, who was eager to venture into this realm after seeing her sister find relief from chronic back pain through cannabis. “We are interested in making beautiful forms that function very well,” she says. “We hoped to make something that could help more people open their minds to plants like cannabis with real medical potential.”
“Everyone is coping with a lot right now. If there’s anything we can do to make it easier for them to try something that may make them feel better, it’s a worthy endeavour.”
Tyrrell approached Bakker in 2019, with a brief referencing traditional Irish clay pipes and not much else, trusting the designer’s playfulness and purity of form. Bakker ended up finding inspiration in an inflatable swan pool floatie he saw on vacation, which informed his design for Cloud Pipe – a smooth, spoon-shaped pipe that resembles a swirling cloud when smoked. Next came HopStep, a versatile vessel that converts into a pipe with an aluminium insert. “Simplicity is core to us, which can be the absolute devil, because if you make a mistake, there’s nowhere to hide,” says Tyrrell, who worked with Richard Whiteley at the Corning Museum of Glass Studio to produce the pieces while J. Hill’s Standard gets its own kiln set up. “Aldo’s piece was very challenging to realise for that reason: it has to be perfect down to the millimetre.”
HopStep’s unique shape is made possible by a dual-cast kiln method that fires separate interior and exterior moulds, which are hand-sculpted together after. It blew open the creative possibilities for Bakker. “With a transparent material, you see the outside and inside simultaneously – an outer line and an inner line,” he says. “A straight line, a diagonal line and a little quarter of a circle. The name ‘HopStep’ came from that movement connecting the shapes.”
Whether through the soothing approachability of Cloud Pipe or the beguiling movement of HopStep, Tyrrell hopes these pieces not only progress the art of glass craft in cannabis, but help further conversations around the drug as medicine. “Everyone is coping with a lot right now,” she explains. “If there’s anything we can do to make it easier for them to try something that may make them feel better, it’s a worthy endeavour.”
Words Lauren Yoshiko
Photographs Fabian Frinzel
This article was originally published in Disegno #34. To buy the issue, or subscribe to the journal, please visit the online shop.