Wojtek Pastuch: Smooth Bent Egg (0902) Tobacco Pipe

We've only received a couple of bent Eggs from Wojtek Pastuch before, and each were dark of stain and deeply sandblasted, making this smooth offering quite the contrasting outlier. Shape-wise, it's also notably different, catering more toward the Danish, teardop-shanked style. It's a take on the Sixten Ivarsson and Jess Chonowitsch Fish shape, the form full of forward momentum and "swimming" sense of flow. Wojtek's playful creativity takes on full effect, though, in how the Polish carver has incorporated the shank's flanking ridgelines — on the left side, the ridge curls slightly upward, rather than formed via two tapering edges, sweeping up the bowl to the front of the rim. The right flank travels in a similar trajectory but curls downward and terminates at the aft side of the rim. It makes for a sort of Yin and Yang aesthetic, as each ridgeline points opposite the other yet in a balanced, complete sense. Adorning it all is a bright, natural contrast stain, made possible only by the briar's perfect grain: From out of each ridgeline shoots tight-knit cross grain, leaving a dense array of birdseye all along the bowl's fore. It's beautiful work from Pastuch and is a testament to his ability to shape according to the grain, each ridgeline's path informed by the location of the cross grain.