Dirk Heinemann: Partially Sandblasted Dora with Wenge Tobacco Pipe

One of Dirk Heinemann's signature shapes, the Dora came into being first on paper. Like many carvers, Dirk experiments with shaping with a pencil and paper, playing with lines and proportions, before moving to briar. In the case of the Dora, Dirk found a striking design by focus on the shank rather than rendering the bowl itself particularly unique, as is often the case when fashioning creative, non-standard designs. By pinching the shank at the flanks and lending it considerably more height, curving the face slightly and flicking upward the transition into a point, Heinemann created a unique, blade-like aesthetic that cuts a sharp, sleek-lined profile, while at the same time being quite robust and hearty in hand thanks to the squat, bulbous Tomato bowl up front.

Though the relative silhouette of every Dora is more or less similar, Dirk fashions each one individually and creatively, making them all subtly different and utterly their own. In this particular rendition, much of the piece's uniqueness is apparent along the underside: Invert the pipe, and you'll notice three ridges beginning at the bottom of the shank and then curling through the heel and up the fore of the bowl, dissipating and tapering gradually until coming to one single ridgeline that terminates at the rim. Adding some asymmetry and acting as a stunning accent, the tapering stream has been smooth polished and contrast stained not only to highlight the whorls of birdseye covering it but also to make it stand out atop the subtle, dark-stained sandblast of the rest of the stummel.

A gorgeous shape combined with a stunning dual finish, this is a beautiful piece from Dirk, and to top it all off, the entire face of the shank has been fitted with a slender ferrule of wenge — an African hardwood native to the Congo, Cameroon, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea, here adding to the piece a warm, cumberland-esque hue with a striated visual texture.