Todd Johnson: Smooth Blowfish with Bakelite (Hoplite) Tobacco Pipe

When it comes to the Blowfish shape, we've seen Todd Johnson render the form in a variety of styles — from drawn out, Long Shank pieces all the way to more compact, Fugu-style numbers. This particular Hoplite grade is a gorgeous example of the latter, featuring a tight-knit, curled aesthetic in profile and a very controlled sense of asymmetry overall. Going into more detail, the bowl's been lent a touch of extra height, with a more pronounced saddle-shaped rim — the latter working to echo the strong arcing gesture of the underside and top of the shank. What's more, while still keeping to the form's controlled, compact style, Todd's really played with the Tokutomi-esque sense of organic asymmetry in the cross-section, keeping the left flank fairly subdued and low-profile while drawing out the edges of the right's convex paneled face to create fin-like ridges along the aft and fore.

Those lines and details not only work to realize a complex and dynamic silhouette, but each ridge serves as a hard frame for the block's spectacular grain, neatly presenting both fiery birdseye and cross grain alike through a warm, smoldering contrast finish. Adding to that, Todd's lent this piece one of his more unique styles of accent stems as well, matching the stummel's warm palette and continuing the arcing line of the shank with a flared ruby Bakelite stem base, inset with pale white Bakelite for the rest of the mouthpiece./p> - Andrew Wike