Yeti: Smooth Eskimo (494) Tobacco Pipe

The Eskimo design has a somewhat confusing history. Considered another name for the Ukulele shape, it's mistakenly associated with Sixten Ivarsson's Ukulele, which is a signature, Diplomat-esque form. In actuality, though, the Eskimo was originally created by American carver Ed Burak and resembles a sort of exceptionally broad-shanked Bulldog. It was, then, riffed on by Tom Eltang, who calls his version an Eskimo, thus leading us to this piece from Micah "Yeti" Cryder.

Since the shape is primarily defined by a wide-splayed shank meeting the bowl at a transition that's as broad as the bowl's base, it lends itself to creative interpretations in regard to specific bowl shape, being bent or straight, and virtually all other design elements. For Micah, his renditions tend to fall within the form seen here — an exceptionally squat, forward-urging Dublin of sorts, often kissed with plateau along the rim. This particular rendition features some impressively trim panels, beginning along the flanks of the stem, traveling the length of the shank, and flaring ever-so-slightly all the way into the transition. The bottom ridgelines comprising these facets continue, then, into the lower bowl, wrapping through the fore to separate bowl from heel, while the top ridgelines curl suddenly upward, evaporating into the bowl. Such a use of hard lines contributes a rigid, architectural style to the unique shape, echoed by the rim's ridgeline which undulates subtly, adding a whimsical flow and continuing the form's forward-urging momentum.

A pipe for grain hounds, this piece couldn't boast more birdseye — the entire top and bottom studded in dense whorls, the plateau seeming to sprout up from out of the birdseye at the rim. Elsewhere, trim streaks of straight grain line the faceted flanks and the bowl's sides, the whole piece dressed in an alluring, walnut contrast stain. A gorgeously adorned and expertly shaped piece from Cryder.