Larps, or Live Action Role Playing games,  are mass participant games of pretend, notmally set in a fantasy or historical setting. There are many in the UK, ranging from 10 person "parlour" larps set in grand houses, to 3 day festival larps attended by hundreds of people.
I go to "Empire", a game run by "Profound Decisions".
Me and 3000 other nerds decend on Dadford road campsite 4 times a year to eat, drink, fight, and polotic our way through a fantasy world. There is a working economy with money, resources, and services being exchanged throughout the event. My day job gives me acces to Kilns and the equipment to make slip casting moulds. So why not bring real pipes and sell them for fake money? Fake money, that for 3 days, buys food and drink.
Thus, Ralph Mottes Smokeable Pots, best pipes in the empire, was born.
The handsome bunch of micreants below are the "Happiston Volunteers". I'm the one on the right, with the straw hat.
But what's the current state of clay pipe making in the uk?​

My name is James Ashwell, AKA Ralph Mottes.
I've been making replica clay pipes for almost 4 years now, and have not properly documented a single bit of it. There are hundreds of photos and hours of badly filmed snippets of making, none of which is viewable by a wider audience. So, in the interest of protecting a critically endangared craft, rather than just making stuff for myself, here is this blog.
The plan is to fill the Pipe blog with everything pipes. History, classic making techniques, how I'm personally making them, and my plans to protect the craft through digitisation.
My partner, Beth, who is much better at putting pen to paper than me, has already written up a bunch of posts on the history of pipe making in the UK, and on a couple of pipe related trips we have taken together.
​But first, what the hell is LARPing?