Todd Johnson: Smooth Blowfish (Phalanx) Tobacco Pipe

From long-shanked, petite bowled renditions to compact, tight-knit Fugu-style iterations, we've seen quite a range of Blowfish designs from Todd Johnson over the years — though we haven't seen one of this particular style in quite some time. In both scale and overall shaping, it calls to mind some of the heavily Toku-inspired pieces Todd was making back in the mid-2000s. While that Japanese influence really comes out in the diagonal orientation and subtle asymmetry of its panels, as well as the more organic, swimming gesture created by the right-leaning bowl and left-leaning stem design, Todd still made this piece all his own, scaling up the sheer mass of the bowl (and cavernous depth of chamber) and contrasting that visual weight with a comparatively trim, horizontally pinched style of shank.

But there's more to this Blowfish design than its fluid asymmetry and gestural shaping; every line, every panel, every face was carefully planned and executed to showcase the natural beauty of the briar — resulting in a sea of deep, whirling birdseye covering the left and right flanks, with brilliant crossgrain flowing down the center plane of bowl and shank. For a bit of visual and textural contrast, Todd even kept the briar's natural plateau along the left side's disc-like panel, making for great visual effect while also reinforcing the organic, Japanese influence of the design. Excellent work from Todd here.

- Andrew Wike