Yang Kun: Smooth Bent Dublin (Signature) (2267) Tobacco Pipe

Prior to becoming a pipe maker, Yang Kun worked in the Chinese television and film industry as a makeup artist. In 2010, a friend showed Kun a book of Sixten Ivarsson pipes, and Kun immediately become fascinated with pipe making as a craft. In 2012, Kun left his job in the entertainment industry and transitioned to pipe making full-time. Along the way, he studied under artisan carver Hongjian Qiu, who taught Kun about the fundamentals of pipe making, such as drilling, draft hole funneling, and contrast staining.

A striking design rife with organic character, this bent Dublin boasts a dynamic, asymmetrical build, with a lopsided bowl that curves to one side of the composition and a shank that expands and crests at the rear. Both of those aforementioned shaping cues foster a silhouette of competing curves and ridgeline, culminating in a design that's uneven yet quite supple in appearance. The bowl boasts a broad, Calabash-like rim that is encircled by a ridgeline and resides over a firm heel. The shank curves away from the low-set transition and flares outward to a meet a demurely curved mouthpiece, and as it does, two ridgelines around the underside follow the shank's trajectory and add further definition to the shank's flare. A warm, honey-hued smooth finish ties the entire form together, highlighting a gorgeous display of flame grain and birdseye throughout the stummel.