Sabina Santos: Sandblasted Bent Billiard with Bamboo with Red Jasper Tobacco Pipe

Sabina Santos is one of Portugal's few artisan pipe makers, but she's developed an international reputation for pieces that are uniquely designed, expertly engineered, and handsomely finished. She spent a good deal of time studying under some of Denmark's premier carvers, including Tom Eltang, Kai Nielsen, Tao, and Kurt Balleby. That Danish influence, particularly the organic sensibility and clean line work, is evident in this eye-catching bent Billiard.

Slender and supple, the pert, upright bowl tapers from its plump heel toward its rim, while the abbreviated shank angles out of the low-set transition before giving way to three knuckles of bamboo. The bamboo offers a lively touch of naturalism to the composition, and each notch is evenly spaced, creating a visual rhythm between the transition to the shoulders of the saddle stem. Further accentuating the nodes of bamboo are tiny accents of red jasper, a ruby-hued stone that's embedded in each knuckle. A cumberland stem tops off the design and matches the coloration of the smooth briar seen along the shank. The bowl wears a dark, crisp sandblast that accentuates the natural grain orientation of the briar and coaxes out whispers of growth rings.