American Estates: Adam Davidson Partially Sandblasted Amoeba with Bamboo (2011) Tobacco Pipe

Asymmetrical and organically inspired, this sleek Amoeba design from Adam Davidson integrates three knuckles of dark bamboo into the composition. While some pipe makers simply use bamboo as an extension, the American artisan incorporates the knuckles as a necessary functional element of his work. This lightweight pipe's shape-shifting namesake is derived from the wavy, purposefully unbalanced shaping of the rim, which slopes, tilts and then skews to either flank. In a sort of optical illusion, Adam has created the rim so that from the smoker's perspective, it appears to be arrow-tipped; from the fore, it looks exactly like those unicellular organisms for which it's named. Boasting a bit of plateau on the light, smooth-finished rim, the stummel otherwise wears a dark, inky sandblast, one that reveals rippling bands of growth rings flowing through the lower walls of the bowl. The trajectory of the bamboo is then mirrored in the domed base of the slim saddle stem, its ebony hue pairing nicely with the stummel.