Tsuge Ikebana: Smooth Tomato (Kikuchi) (G) (012) (2024) Tobacco Pipe

Asami Kikuchi is the youngest of the three artisans 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..

A handsome showcase of Kikuchi's style, this Tomato boasts a soft, elegant, Danish-esque outline, and a supple curvature throughout the composition. A broad, plump bowl rests at the pipe's fore, its gently contoured walls rising with an arcing taper from heel to rim. A dimpled transition rounds out the bowl's aft side and marks the start of a trim shank that flicks upward to meet a demurely curved stem. The shank and stem taper together and slenderize the pipe's aft, drawing focus to the bowl and its forward-ebbing posture. Dressing this piece is a smoky smooth finish that highlights gorgeous flame grain across the bowl's frame.