Wandi Riyadi: Smooth Tomato with Ivorite Tobacco Pipe

The only pipe maker I know of from Indonesia, Wandi Riyadi was born in Tasikmalaya, West Java in 1984, and he was inspired to begin crafting pipes after he saw people smoking them as a youth. In 2011, he began smoking himself, and his drive to carve was enhanced as he learned of the creative freedom and artistic nature of handmade pipes, leading him to start his career as an artisan. Being one of Indonesia's few artisan carvers, Riyadi turned to the internet to educate himself on carving, and his shaping style is influenced by historic masters of the craft, such as Bo Nordh, Sixten Ivarsson, and Hiroyuki Tokutomi. Regardless of the influence he takes from other artisans, Riyadi boasts a design language all his own, and this unique perspective offers refreshing takes on nearly every shape he carves.

This Tomato is a striking piece, and it's immediately reminiscent of pipes from both the Danish and Japanese schools of design, with a plump, organic design that emphasizes the Tomato's iconic rotundity. Though the bowl is certainly the focal point of this composition, the shank and stem combination still stand out quite readily thanks to their expert shaping and unique design. Beneath the wide transition, the shank is stylistically extended by a short spur of briar that visually separates the bowl and shank while drawing the eye to the fore, its presence visually extending the reach of the shank while underscoring the organic charm of the composition's silhouette. This shank tapers gently as it lifts out of the transition, meeting a flaring fitment of domed Ivorite whose face is inlaid with brass, forming a sturdy military mount that fits the sleek saddle stem to the stummel. A soft, slightly rounded style of expansion ring accents the stem's base, matching the Ivorite's domed presence in a configuration evocative of Sixten Ivarsson's work. Up front, the bowl stands on a rounded heel that works in concert with the spur to allow this pipe to sit stably on a flat surface, canting the bowl forward dynamically as it does. The walls of the bowl are delightfully rounded and offer a wealth of comfort in the hand, rising to a soft, oblong rim whose shaping speaks to the bowl's understated asymmetry: indicative of the wealth of sophisticated shaping present in this pipe's construction. Dressed in a warm, light stain, the bowl's walls showcase windswept flame grain wrapping around its circumference, while the rim and underside are covered in dense birdseye.