Smooth Blowfish Tobacco Pipe

Better known by his pseudonym, Madao3000, artisan Wang Tieyuan hails from Beijing and formerly worked as an engineer before he left the industry to pursue pipe making full-time in 2025. His inspirations include Scandinavian pipe makers, Hiroyuki Tokutomi, and fine art — especially Chinese classics.

Madao3000 very much put the "fish" in this Blowfish of his by giving the shank a distinct, forked "tail" that especially sells the shape when taken together with the generously round flanks of the bowl. The bowl is dynamic not just in shape but also in grain, with straight grain adorning much of the right flank and birdseye the entirety of the left. Even with a six-inch length, this piece manages to be somewhat slight in composition as Madao3000 shaped it for the walls to fall quickly away from the chamber down to the heel, which is bisected by a single, well-defined ridgeline running from shank to rim. The stummel is smoothly finished and stained a bright auburn, while the saddle-style cumberland stem has lightly asymmetrical shoulders ahead of the lengthy, minutely bent mouthpiece. It's a lovely work from the Chinese artisan, sure to be just as brilliant when filled and smoked as it is in profile at rest.