Kent Rasmussen: Sandblasted Volcano with Ivorite Tobacco Pipe

Kent Rasmussen has been working with wood since he was a child and grew up creating art, something he's been passionate about ever since, so much so that, in 1988, he began a career as a modern artist. In 1994 he carved his first pipe, more an experiment than anything else, though in 1998, after losing interest with the realm of modern art, he began carving pipes again, meeting Teddy Knudsen in 1999: a man who showed him that pipes themselves could be art. Armed with the knowledge that he could combine his passion with his work, he redoubled his efforts yet again, making artisan carving his new occupation and creating pieces such as this Volcano.

A boldly neoclassical pipe, the visual center here is immediately apparent, as the bowl stands out at the forefront with an impressive and surprising boldness. Despite not being compact in really any way, the look of this pipe attests otherwise, with a tightly-knit construction that places further emphasis on the bowl. Much of this compact look is thanks to the shank's remarkable brevity, as it flares out of a parabolic transition and almost immediately meets a plump ring of Ivorite, its length of less than an inch situating the monolithic presence of the bowl almost directly next to the stem base and its broad expansion ring. Said stem is a lilting saddle of black vulcanite that curls smartly into a comfortable smoking posture, the bit's slenderness pushing the visual weight to the fore, while the expansion ring and its proximity to the bowl create a well of negative space that cements the fore as the realm of compositional intrigue. The bowl itself conforms to the Volcano's iconic design by standing atop a broad, expansive base, here comprising a vast plain of plateau that dissipates near the bottom of the shank. From here the walls of the bowl take on a conical taper to the rim, the organic swath of plateau boasting a natural asymmetry that lifts on the right flank, though the taper of the walls remains even and consistent. Additional asymmetry at the rim sees the walls lift at the fore, underscoring the organicism of the piece, and the briar is dressed in a warm, rich tanblast, unveiling dense ring grain cascading down the sloped bowl.