Sandblasted Bent Apple with Bamboo Tobacco Pipe

Jared Coles became fascinated with pipes at an early age when he saw his grandfather smoking one. Coles himself became a pipe smoker as soon as he turned 18 and later discovered artisan pipe making while in college. After graduating, Coles and his friend John Klose formed the J&J Pipes workshop, and for eight years they worked together before the duo decided to pursue their crafts separately. Coles now fashions pipes under his own name, and he boasts a rather diverse portfolio that includes everything from traditional shape-chart standards to more organic designs. This bent Apple is a rather stylish rendition of the classic form, and it nicely showcases Coles' refined shaping, deft use of accenting materials, and high-quality finishing work.

A dramatically lifted heel hoists the pert, curvaceous bowl at the fore of the composition and lends the pipe's profile a rather dynamic posture. The bowl's forward-slanted rim further accentuates the pipe's active poise, while the high-kicking shank-and-stem arrangement provides a comfortable smoking posture. The shank curls out of the low-set transition and gives way to a long stretch of warm, vibrant bamboo, which itself gives way to a slender, demurely curved saddle stem of jet-black vulcanite. The aforementioned bamboo adds an organic character to the design and brightens the pipe's otherwise reserved color palette. A rugged, earth-toned sandblast dresses the stummel and brings vivid definition to the natural grain orientation of the briar, save for the rim, which is left smooth for a bit of tactile contrast.