Peter Heding: Smooth Bent Dublin with Masur Birch (Diamond) Tobacco Pipe

While working in a laboratory as a molecular biologist, Peter Heding saw an interview with the renowned Anne Julie and became fascinated with pipe making. He spent two years studying in Tom Eltang's workshop, where he honed his skills and learned about shaping, finishing, and engineering. After studying with Eltang, Heding took his work to the Chicago Pipe Show in 2004 and 2005. In 2006, pleased with his work and its reception, Heding resigned from his research position and became a full-time pipe maker.

This bent Dublin is an exquisite example of Heding's refined shaping style and dazzling finishing work. Horizontally compressed, the bowl here flares from its lifted heel to its broad, ridgeline-wrapped rim. The lifted heel drives the bowl upward and outward, lending the overall composition a rather dynamic posture in profile. The oval shank curls from the low-set transition and marries a slender vulcanite mouthpiece, which is slightly downturned near the bit for a comfortable smoking posture. Ridgelines on either side of the shank mirror the one around the rim, creating a touch of visual congruity on either end of the stummel. The ridgelines also provide a bit of structure to the form, without distracting from the consistent undercurve that stretches from bowl to shank end. Dressed in a vibrant auburn smooth finish, the stummel displays fine strands of flame grain as they build to a rim populated with birdseye. A warm accent of masur birch adorns the shank end and provides further visual appeal to this already stylish design, and it's earned Heding's highest grade, Diamond, marked by a Zirconia diamond along the underside.