Jared Coles: Smooth Disk (1659) Tobacco Pipe

Both of the pieces in today's update from Jared Coles share a distinct, subtle type of asymmetry, but they also share a number of other characteristics. For one, the shaping of both began in the workshop of fellow American pipemaker Adam Davidson. It's not unusual for one pipemaker to visit another, each observing the way the other works and each (often under nervousness-inducing scrutiny) taking a stab at the shaping wheel to apply some of the principles learned. While much can be gleaned from inspecting the results of said work after the fact (namely, the pipe), nothing is more invaluable, in terms of developing and continuing to hone a method and aesthetic, than to witness the process taken to get there. It's how the artisanal pipe movement initially spread from Denmark as far as Japan, and it's one of the reasons it continues to thrive today.

Along with both being a slight departure from Jared's overall aesthetic, both of these pieces also draw an acute influence from the work of other noted carvers, in this case Adam Davidson himself, as this is a take on a shape with which Adam has experimented considerably. Jared's done an excellent job at maintaining the form's active sense of poise and the aforementioned asymmetry, though he chose to forego Adam's outright industrial shaping for something decidedly more organic. Rather than a fully convex ridge defining the geometry of the bowl, Jared opted to frame the rim with a deeper concave sweep, lending it a subtly floral disposition in profile. He's paired it with a curving plane of a partial plateau underside, defining the profile of a succinct, upward-flicking shank accentuated by an electric display of warm, contrast-stained flame, and allowing the piece to sit stably on a flat surface.