Dirk Heinemann: Sandblasted Fish with Spalted Birchwood Tobacco Pipe

Hand making pipes in Germany, Dirk Heinemann leverages a previous career as a furniture design to craft premium smoking instruments. His work most often combines organic and architectural motifs for a singular design aesthetic supported by sterling craftsmanship and artful accents. This bent Apple leans toward Heinemann's organic shaping aesthetic.

The Fish is a distinctly Danish design pioneered by Lars Ivarsson and Jess Chonowitsch, and it's most commonly defined by a rounded bowl and a shank with a teardrop cross section, creating a ridgeline along one flank. Heinemann's interpretation here riffs off of that original design while expanding the proportions for a particularly robust rendition. The shank equals the bowl in visual weight, yet its characteristic ridgeline remains more subdued, terminating at the heel instead of traveling through the bowl as some iterations show. Such increased proportions provide more canvas on which to showcase this briar's stunning grain: Waves of ring grain cascade around the stummel, dressed in a rich crimson stain and accented by a pale section of spalted birch along the shank end. It's a wonderful homage to the history of pipe making, yet rendered uniquely through Heinemann's creative lens.