Bill Shalosky: Sandblasted Tomato with Mammoth (573) Tobacco Pipe

A graduate of the Columbus College of Arts & Design, Bill Shalosky's experience in ceramics and woodturning have lent him a keen eye for design and a steady hand that served him well as he worked restoring, and later making, pipes for Smokers' Haven. He later went on to both work with and receive tutelage from Premal Chheda, continuing to make pipes and improve his skill set before joining with the team at BriarWorks in 2015. Shalosky also crafts his own pipes, drawing inspiration from almost every style within the pipe world and applying his own personal touch to each one, resulting in shapes such as this Tomato.

This shape has become something of a signature for Shalosky, as we've seen it from him several times with various features tweaked in each rendition, and it's quite a handsome one. It presents with a reserved sense of sinuosity throughout its build that manifests as an understated S-curve through the shank, stem, and heel, carrying itself with a gracefulness that ensures each component of its build is appreciated. As a Tomato, this is a rather demure imagining of the profile, as its bowl doesn't quite expand to a breadth as striking as others of its kind. This is especially apparent thanks to its pairing with an ovoid shank, the plump waistline pushing out just a touch more than the shank itself, creating a look evocative of the Apple or Diplomat. The waist here is much lower-set than the Apple, however, and its slow, rounded arc to the rather wide rim reinforces this, keeping the feel in hand quite comfortable. The transition is quite wide and leaves ample room to drape a thumb, seeing the shank take on an easy upward curve to its end, where it meets a demurely curved saddle stem accented with a broad band of mammoth at its base. A lifted heel pushes the bowl into further prominence, though the wide stretch of shank and stem keeps the visual weight here centered squarely at the transitional area, and enhances the fluid contours of the pipe quite nicely. Dressed in a natural sandblast, the stummel here showcases rippling ring grain through the bowl while growth rings flow through the shank, the underside populated by textural birdseye.