Michail Kyriazanos: Smooth Acorn with Bamboo Tobacco Pipe

Displaying an organically informed design, this compact Acorn from Michail Kyriazanos features a supple, bulbous and forward-ebbing bowl, the plump flanks and pronounced spur-like heel reminiscent of the nut for which it's named. The Greek artisan has been crafting pipes professionally since 2010, and while his stylistic range is broad, Michail professes a fondness for the classics, lending them his own more contemporary interpretation. He's lent this rendition an active silhouette, the bowl paired to a shank that goes outward, then up as it's integrated by bent nodes of bamboo. The carver's precision in assimilating the pale grass so seamlessly into the composition and bending it is clearly remarkable and a fine testament to his skill with alternative materials. The rhythm and spacing of the bamboo nodes continue through the stem base's expansion disc for a pipe that's dynamic and distinctive in profile. The stummel is dressed in a warm auburn contrast stain, highlighting dense tendrils of flame grain on all flanks, while freckles of birdseye populate the beveled rim.