The Smallest Eye He Had Ever Seen
In April 2026, in the Blue Mountains of Australia, I visited Ian Mackenzie to repair my uilleann pipes. What began as a practical visit about reeds, tuning, chanters, drones, and missing screws became something else: a conversation about handmade instruments, aging, ships, surgery, coffee, Galician pipes, 3D printing, and the strange intimacy of repair.