J. Alan: Sandblasted Peewit with Bamboo (1653) Tobacco Pipe

Few shapes could better represent the influences that have helped build Jeff Gracik's skills than Sixten Ivarsson's Peewit. Sixten was the progenitor, the origin for what would become modern Danish artisan carving, and Jeff owes much to that movement and to Sixten's descendants, Lars and Nanna. He thought carefully about how to incorporate symbols of those whose work impacted his own, and obtained the briar used for this piece from Jess Chonowitsch, the bamboo for the shank from Hiroyuki Tokutomi, and the shape itself from Sixten.

The techniques used to stabilize, strengthen, and take advantage of the qualities of bamboo he learned from Jess, and it is here evident. The briar that Jess provided is equally impressive, and Jeff has sandblasted it to excellent effect, with ring grain circling the bowl and stacking up to the domed rim of the Sixten shape. The heel is subtly pointed, and the transition rises from that point to join the bowl and the shank, which is diminutive in diameter in harmony with that of the bamboo. The mouthpiece is vulcanite and reveals an offset base before down-stepping to the flat saddle aspect that leads to the crisp lip button, itself engineered in the style of the famous Danes.

This is a pipe that is not merely well executed and monumentally impressive in its own right; it's a tableau of the historical influences that have brought Jeff Gracik's skills to a level appropriate for joining the ranks of the talented individuals from whom he has learned.