Trey Rice: Sandblasted Natural Lovat with Boxwood Tobacco Pipe

Trey Rice has been involved in the art of creation since childhood, advancing out of toys and into woodworking, then architecture, and now pipe making. Trey's introduction into the world of pipes was courtesy of a friend who introduced him to the hobby while in college, and Rice was enamored almost immediately and sought to purchase one himself. Lacking funds, but familiar with woodwork, Trey began to carve himself a pipe. He hasn't stopped carving since then, and advanced his skills considerably as he continued, going on to receive tutelage from accomplished American carvers and incorporate new techniques into his work. With his growing skill came a finely tuned sense of taste, and his appreciation for the Danish school's great artisans, seminal American carvers, and historic English firms rings true in his work.

Though initially this Lovat looks to be straight out of an Anglo-French shape chart, there's a good bit of extra substance lent to the bowl, its walls thicker, taller, and more robust than would be expected in a thoroughly traditional rendition. Along with providing more substance in the hand, this emphasis on the bowl is reflective of the American style's sense of understated muscularity and bowl-forward proportions. Said bowl rests atop a pronounced heel and tapers gently toward a softly chamfered and inflated rim, its walls offering plenty of curvature for the fingers to appreciate. A wide transition gives way to a sleek shank whose end is capped with a domed fitment of pale boxwood, the face of which has been carved with an added bit of recess to allow the base of a sleek saddle stem to nestle in. A single expansion ring punctuates the start of this stem's bit and lends some firmness to the aft side that draws a bit of the visual weight away from the bowl. Dressed in a crisp tanblast, there's a wealth of blasted birdseye on either flank of this piece to appreciate, the boxwood fitment offering complementary tones which unify the look of things nicely.