Ken Dederichs: Smooth Freehand Tobacco Pipe

Though quite compact from end to end, Ken Dederichs has still lent an impressive degree of complexity to this Freehand. The broad, rolling rim cascades seamlessly down the aft of the bowl, creating crisp ridges to either flank which descend in a parabolic arc through the transition. There they meet the hard lines of the pinched, lenticular shank, which follows a pronounced flare in the cross-section. In many ways it calls to mind the look of some of the more stylized Blowfish designs we've come across recently, balancing a firm sense of geometry with organic dynamism. Also like those renditions, each line and ridge in this composition serves another purpose: to section off and frame the different facets of the block's stunning grain. Beautiful work from Ken here.

- Andrew Wike