Ken Dederichs: Smooth Mushroom Tobacco Pipe

Japanese-born artisan Ken'ichiro Dederichs-Uchida spent the first part of his professional life as an architect in his native country, his education in the field and years of experience informing his evolution as a pipe maker. Dederichs began carving in 2005 as a hobby and in 2007 moved to Germany where, a year later, he realized that pipe making had become his true passion, taking on the craft as a full-time career. Dederichs' perspective on design is truly a singular one, interpreting old world shapes through the lenses of both the Japanese and Danish schools, though this Mushroom showcases his more modern sensibilities.

The Mushroom is quite an organic shape, beloved for its ample curvature and cap-like rim, and it's one that Dederichs has carved many times, though in a wide variety of outlines that highlight the versatility of the profile. This particular example merges the smooth, fluid, and organic with firm lines, thanks to a pair of ridgelines that denote both the domed rim and shank face, both of these areas' broad expanses of briar speaking to the heartiness of this pipe's form. The trajectory and terminating point of the shank's ridgelines accentuate the lifted heel and fluid nature of the pipe in profile. The lifted heel gives the bowl a gestural poise and a forward-surging momentum that keeps the overall shape dynamic. The stummel wears a stunning, smooth auburn-stained finish that showcases tight bands of flame grain on either flank of the stummel and plenty of birdseye across the shank and the aft part of the rim.