Ali Pasha Tepena, who lacked nothing in his yard, would have envied a pipe carved by the hands of master Isuf Skenderi. On the wall of the balcony, under the grape pergola, where he likes to work quietly, he fixed exactly one meter and 5 centimeter pipe..
Isuf Skenderi belongs to the third generation of pipe carving masters, and perhaps the only one in Albania, who works with the same tools, just like his father and grandfather, who once had a well-known shop in Pazari old of Tirana.

“With the destruction of the bazaar and the disappearance of private work, all the artisans gathered at the “Migheni” Artistic Enterprise. I had another profession. For 23 years I taught shoe production technology at the vocational school, the only one in Albania, School of Municipal Economics. With the change of systems and the permission of private work, I started to deal with the craft of my ancestors, especially after 2002, when the reforms of the time destroyed professional education. I left and devoted myself to this profession”, says Isufi for “Secrets of Mastery”.

He is satisfied that he has also inherited the profession from his children, and among an album of photos he selects one, where the grandfather and his 6-year-old grandson appeared, while teaching them how to use the drill. While in another it is the daughter, who has also learned the trade. Except he has left them free to choose their path.

It mainly produces objects related to the use of tobacco: pipes, pipes, snuffers, pipe holders, but this does not mean that it encourages smoking.
“Smoking is a vice and I try to protect the smoker. The wood has the property of cooling the smoke and not burning the larynx, while a good part of the nicotine remains here. But on the other hand, it also protects the fingers”, says Isufi.
The entire process of making a pipe is manual, from turning, opening holes, drying, painting with natural dyes and carving. The objects produced for the market mainly carry the “Albania” brand, but he can also make personalized ones with names, initials, country names and colors as desired.

One of the secrets of the craft is the material, but also the preparation of carving knives. Usually heather wood is used. “The wood must be as strong as possible, with a compact structure, so we use heather, maple. The poplar is unusable, as well as the beech, the hornbeam, the hornbeam. Their structure does not create the opportunity to create beautiful carvings and it is deformed”, says the master, who has pedagogy in his blood and when he explains a process, it seems as if he is giving you a lecture.
With the red mosque of the Tirana area, with a white shirt and a cigarette on his lips, he does not hesitate to share some secrets of his craft. “Work doesn’t tire me,” he says, but there are some other things that tire him, such as complying with trade rules, creating spaces and facilities for the preservation of the craft. Thanks to his hands, he has managed to educate his children, create a good living for himself, participate in fairs not only in Albania, but as far as Tehran, but today he feels tired of being a trader of the goods he produces. I tire of the idea of a bag on my arm and knocking around in souvenir shops. “This is a matter of politics. I know how to do what I know, let the politicians do the politics”, says Isufi, as he continues to carve under the shade of the pergola.