Kent Rasmussen: Smooth Freehand with Masur Birch (Butterfly) Tobacco Pipe

Kent Rasmussen has an apparent gift with using a piece's edges to offer a sense of dynamism and power to a given form. We've seen the carver achieve this through a juxtaposition of warm smooth stain ridges and an understated, dark texture. Here, he makes use of the shape's wave crest-like sense of implied momentum, making use of those aforementioned ridges to draw the frame that sense of energy.

The form is similar to certain Horn renditions we've seen from the carver before, only seemingly sleeker and more compressed, and likewise a stronger sense of forward-inclined shaping. And Kent's clearly selected a block of seriously exquisite briar for this fellow, with straight and flame grain in spades, along with remarkably vibrant birdseye at the rim, wrapping to meet the underside. Kent opted for a handsome, warm contrast paired to a stem base of iridescent masur birch, and fittingly, it's been stamped with his venerated "Butterfly" stamp, his highest grade.