David Huber: Smooth Ballerina in Repose (600) (3622) Tobacco Pipe

David Huber has been obsessed with the art of pipe making since buying his first pipe in 2006, spending the proceeding years collecting even more pieces and studying various design schools, with a focus on the Japanese and Danish aesthetics. During this period, Huber worked as a freelance designer for live theater productions, and ordered his first blocks of briar in 2010, spending two years refining his skills. In 2014 he began to carve pipes full time, his progress furthered by tutelage from artisans such as Jeff Gracik, Tom Eltang, and Nanna Ivarsson.

This Ballerina in Repose is a striking re-interpretation of Bo Nordh's iconic Ballerina shape, eschewing the signature outline of the stummel, which evokes the look of a ballerina's foot en pointe. Here, that foot is said to be in repose, in a state of rest, though to me even more so represents its subject matter, as the absence of the flattened heel and the more upright position of the bowl and its framing panel call to mind a more literal image of a ballerina's foot. Said framing panel wraps around the flanks, top, and heel of the broad, ovoid bowl, curving back toward the aft rather than the fore, as in more standard variations of this shape, creating a restrained, tranquil outline that's quite graceful. The ridges which confine the wrapping panel are paired with another ridge at both the fore and aft that create a second and third, much smaller set of panels that then dip into a hollowed section of briar as they move closer to the main body of the fore and aft. These two opposite faces are surrounded by these channels, with the fore's face pushing out strikingly and proudly, both providing fantastic canvases for the stummel's warm auburn stain. A trim shank tapers swiftly out of the lower aft side, angled up to meet a flaring fitment of horn that's been inlaid with brass to accept an extremely sleek stem of jet-black vulcanite, these colors contrasting the stummel's and allowing the vast ocean of birdseye present on the fore to stand out even further.