J. Alan: Smooth Flying Fish (1109) Tobacco Pipe

Back in the mid-to-late 2000s, a customer commissioned Jeff Gracik to create something different, a new shape. Though he didn't know it at the time, that new design would inspire a whole series of shapes, each playing off the last. That shape was the Lotus.

Defined by its stout transition, active stance, and V-like silhouette, it was a shape, while quite beautiful on its own right, that had a lot more potential. Jeff saw an opportunity to incorporate into the design an idea Jody Davis had been experimenting with, adding a curled, flipping tail of sorts to the shank and stem. This strongly gestural, back-arcing shank configuration then went on to initiate a whole host of other forms, including Jeff's novel signature shape, the Scorpion Blowfish — a design we've seen fairly regularly from the talented American artisan as of late.

This "Flying Fish," then, is essentially Jeff's latest take on this Scorpion Fish theme, but it wasn't until he had actually finished the piece that he noticed an undeniable thematic similarity to earlier forms. That this piece, in essence, is the culmination of all those years of tweaking and experimenting — the Lotus, the Scorpion Blowish, together in one form. And what a wonder it is to behold.

- Andrew Wike