Tine Balleby: Sandblasted Long Shank Bent Apple with Boxwood Tobacco Pipe

The second generation of Balleby pipe makers, Tine Balleby came to the craft through her father Kurt Balleby. She spent years assisting his pipe making — helping with the finishing and stem work — and apprenticing under him to practice fashioning her own pipes. Her work draws on the same quality standards as her father's work, employing dozens of processes to ensure the utmost precision and longevity in every pipe's finish, stem, and engineering, and Tine's own creative eye and artistry enhances the already recognizable and established Balleby aesthetic.

This Apple is a beautiful example of the Balleby's approach to bent shapes, as the underside of the shank continues through the heel to prop the bowl higher up and emphasize the base's curvature. In this example, though, Tine elongated the shank considerably. Such a design cue divides the pipe's visual focus equally between bowl and shank and also lends the bowl a perched aesthetic, like a piece of fruit weighing down a lithe tree branch. The shank features an oval cross section, and it's topped by a pale ring of boxwood that contrasts against the rest of the stummel's dark, grain-defining sandblast.