Tsuge Ikebana: Sandblasted Bent Apple with Bamboo (Kikuchi) (F) (008) (2023) Tobacco Pipe

Asami Kikuchi is the youngest of the three artisan working in the Tsuge Ikebana workshop. She became fascinated with pipes in her 20s when she utilized the Ikebana workshop's equipment for a school project. Artisan pipe making spoke to her almost immediately, and she asked to stay and learn more about the craft. Kazuhiro Fukuda, the workshop's supervisor and a former student of 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 her style, as it possesses a touch of organic character but otherwise retains a sleek, understated profile.

Marrying the Apple's rounded curves with the Brandy's distinctive taper, the bowl here is quite unique, as it features a wide, supple heel, a taut rim, a mid-set waistline, and a wealth of curvature along the chamber's walls. This eye-catching bowl is perched at the fore of a languid shank-and-stem arrangement, one with a subtle enough bend to balance the weight of the bowl while keeping things fairly reserved in profile. Three knuckles of bamboo extend the shank and lend a lively warmth to the pipe's otherwise reserved color palette, which is predominantly made up of dark, earthy tones. Additionally, the dense grass provides a visual rhythm to the shape's aft side, with each node of bamboo evenly distributed from the transition to the base of the saddle stem. Save for the smoothly polished rim, a dark sandblast dresses the stummel and highlights tight growth rings across the chamber's walls.