Wandi Riyadi: Smooth Billiard with Bamboo (4210) Tobacco Pipe

Indonesian artisan Wandi Riyadi began carving pipes in 2011 while working in IT, focusing on classic shapes until he discovered Freehand design around 2013, the same year he made pipe carving his full time occupation. One of only a few artisan pipe makers in Indonesia, Riyadi learned much of his craft through hands-on experience and online resources, drawing inspiration from Danish and Japanese pipe design, imbuing the influence of Sixten Ivarsson and Hiroyuki Tokutomi with his own impeccable eye for both classic shapes and flourishing Freehand compositions.

This Billiard is a fine example of Riyadi's facility with classic shapes, placing a tall, broad-chambered bowl with sleek, supple walls at rest atop a jutting, flattened heel. Out back, a smooth transition gives way to a sleek round shank, itself overtaken by two knuckles of pale, gnarled bamboo, joined to a sleekly tapered stem of black vulcanite. Dressed in a rich auburn stain, the stummel boasts a wealth of impeccable birdseye around the bowl's flanks, with dense cross grain at the fore and aft .