Chris Asteriou: Smooth Asymmetrical Tomato (1315) Tobacco Pipe

A Greek artisan with a background in architecture, Chris Asteriou leverages his design acumen, innovative creative, and pristine craftsmanship to fashion stunning smoking pipes of supreme quality. His appreciation for iconic classic shapes and historic artisan pipe makers results in a vast portfolio that spans the aesthetic spectrum, from timeless traditional shapes to more evocative, avant-garde Freehands.

Drawing inspiration from iconic Danish artisan Jørn Micke, this Tomato merges the briar's natural grain patterns with artful asymmetry. One of Micke's most recognizable shapes involves a Brandy-like bowl fitted to a shank with a tilted axis, flaring end, and canted face. Asteriou riffs on those ideas in this Tomato, opting for a more squat, bulbous bowl. The bowl's left side expands further outward than the right to align with the briar's crisp cross grain and imbue the shape with organic asymmetry. Likewise, while the shank remains in line with pipes central axis, it flares dramatically toward the stem, and the face is canted toward the right to counteract and balance out the bowl's leftward lean. For one final touch, Asteriou shaped the transition with a slight spur along the bottom, mirroring the bottom line of the shank and echoing the characteristic feature of Asteriou's Strawberry design. It's all a beautiful example of shaping to best maximize the briar's natural grain, and despite being a stout, muscular pipe, this piece urges forward with an inherent dynamism informed by the bowl's cant which is matched by the stem's base's canted ridgeline.