Tsuge Ikebana: Sandblasted Bent Apple (Kikuchi) (G) (017) (2022) Tobacco Pipe

Asami Kikuchi is one of three artisans that carve pipes in Tsuge's Ikebana workshop. She became interested in pipes in her 20s when she got the opportunity to use the Ikebana workshop's equipment to craft small wooden sculptures for one of her school projects. She became fascinated by artisan pipe making and asked to stay and learn more about the pipe-making process. Kazuhiro Fukuda, the workshop's supervisor and a carver that studied under Sixten Ivarsson, took Kikuchi on as an apprentice, and in 2013, she became an artisan for the workshop.

This bent Apple is a fine example of Kikuchi's style and penchant for the organic. The bowl, broad and muscular, gradually tapers from its wide, expansive heel to its slightly more taut rim. Said rim slopes toward the rear of the composition and into the bowl's aft wall and the low-set transition. From there, the shank curls upward and flares into a wide face before giving way to a demurely curved saddle stem of jet-black vulcanite. A gently lifted heel lends the rotund bowl an active posture in profile, which is further accentuated by the rim's pointed fore. An extra-craggy sandblast dresses the stummel and draws out tight stacks of growth rings across the flanks of the bowl, providing a vibrant texture for the fingers to explore as well as a visual feast for the eyes to behold.