Nanna Ivarsson: Smooth Bent Ball (1118) Tobacco Pipe

Nanna Ivarsson is the third generation of Ivarsson to make pipes, with a sharp eye for details, and a skillset honed not only through apprentice-work under her grandfather, Sixten, but also through formal study of Danish Contemporary Design. All of these things are on display in the pipes she makes, their often supple forms a theater of balance and technique with which it is difficult to find fault. Here we have an almost spherical bent Ball, its bowl as shapely as its name might imply, balanced at the end of a softly-lifting shank. The lines of the shape carefully follow the briar's grain, rather than being independent of it — licks of flame surrounding the bowl and climbing the flanks of the shank, with a veritable sea of tight birdseye above and below, all highlighted in a warm, charming contrast that enhances rather than distracts. As balanced as they come, it's a stunning example of Nanna's practiced, elegant shaping style.