Smooth Blowfish Cavalier with Mazur Birch Tobacco Pipe

Should a pipe description ever begin with speaking of color(s)? I think in the case of this stunning, "next level" cavalier blowfish, it's necessary. In three dimensional art, color is a critical (but often overlooked) facet of communicating both artist's intent, as well as setting up or stabilizing the base upon which the onlooker will view the rest of the composition. Color that is wildly unexpected, from an established template of a subject, can provoke emotions that run the gamut from laughter to great unease. Expected colors and the monochromatic usually prompts the viewer's eye to move quickly from the object as a whole, to rapidly taking in detail. In the case of this Florov masterpiece, obsidian, marbled beige and dark ochre, a combination as ancient and timeless as the cradle of civilization, manages to set up a base of intuitive comfort, before your eye takes in a cavalier-blowfish that is unlike anything that has come before it.

A trapezoidal footprint rises to form a hexagonally faceted base, with three of the six bevels appearing on the front, and each of the three bearing distinctly differing angles and reductions from the other. The remaining three are virtual mirrors of each other (the unexpected has more impact when viewed next to the expected). This form passes from vulcanite, through mazur birch, through vulcanite again and into the briar. From here, Alex does the seemingly impossible. Those bevels are both the genesis, and terminus, for every other angle, bevel, facet and panel on the bowl, shank and bit.right up to the button. Conventional pipe shaping techniques could not create this continuity, could not emulate this level of flow and liquidity. The myriad of compound angles and micro-channels this composition displays are well beyond the capabilities of a sanding disc. But not beyond the tools and capabilities of a top tier sculpture. Therein lies the "Florov difference".

--Bear Graves