Lasse Skovgaard: Partially Sandblasted Bent Dublin Tobacco Pipe

As the son of renowned carver Benni Jørgensen, Lasse Skovgaard was born with pipe making in his blood. At the age of 16, he took a job at the famed W.Ø. Larsen workshop, where he made tampers for a time before moving on to carving pipes. Skovgaard received instruction from his father and Teddy Knudsen, and gradually developed his skills over the years. He's now considered to be one of Denmark's premier artisans, and it's easy to see why when considering this bent Dublin.

This piece mixes structural ridgelines with easy curves to create a design that's substantive and rather fluid in appearance. Hoisted upward by a lifted heel, the bowl towers at the fore of the composition, its visual presence further accentuated by a flared rim, which favors the fore dramatically over the aft and gives the bowl and inwardly curling appearance, as if it may topple into the shank and stem. Two firm ridgelines descend from either flank of the bowl, cross the transition, and quickly reduce as the shank curls upwards into an arcing saddle stem of jet-black vulcanite. The ridgelines provide a touch of angularity to the composition that mirrors the rim's similar rigidity, but the structural aspects only work to draw attention to the sinuous nature of the overall design. It's presented in a crisp, jet-black sandblast that coaxes out rippling waves of growth rings across the flanks of the bowl. The shank face and the midsection of the shank are left smooth and stained a warm color for a touch of visual and tactile contrast.