Mike Sebastian Bay: Sandblasted Tomato with Camel Bone Tobacco Pipe

Mike Sebastian Bay started with a simple task, find someone to repair his father's old pipes. He ended up in Tom Eltang's workshop. Learning firsthand from one of Denmark's foremost masters, Bay learned how to shape, drill, engineer, and finish pipes, even being given Eltang's blessing to use his signature rustication. Bay's aesthetic is one steeped in Danish tradition, which he readily embraces.

This Tomato by Mike Sebastian Bay possesses a signature Danish shaping cue, a gestural shank-and-stem arrangement. Emerging from a subtly cheeked transition, a rounded shank rises upward in a demure arc, flaring outward as it rises to a broad shank end. It joins to an eye-catching stem, which presents a trim, white strip of camel bone bisecting the cumberland stem base before giving way to the gentle downward bend of the saddle stem, amplifying the flowing momentum of the gestural shank. This dynamic design serves to draw one's attention to the fore, which is dominated by a stout Tomato bowl. The walls bulge outwards, offering plenty of insulation for the fingers as one smokes and imbues the piece with muscular curvature. Furthermore, the rim's supple contours bend inward to the chamber, adding a touch of softness to the robust bowl — this astute touch highlighted by a vibrant auburn smooth finish that exposes a few freckles of birdseye. Elsewhere on the stummel, a jet-black stain dresses a rugged sandblast, which showcases craggy, undulating growth rings in vivid, palpable detail that fascinates both the eye and the fingers.