Smooth Bent Egg with Silver Tobacco Pipe

Mentored by Vladimir Grechukhin, and with more than a decade of experience, Alexander Tupitsyn has certainly earned his place among artisan carvers everywhere. This graceful bent Egg presents a birdseye lover's most fortuitous dream. The left flank is positively saturated with fine points of birdseye, and a smaller but just-as-dense swath of birdseye is centered on the right. Even the shank displays plenty of birdseye with horizontal flame grain present as well.

However, it's the curvature of this piece that unifies the composition. In profile, the far bowl curves gracefully under the heel and up the shank, a curve complemented by the inverse curve of the near bowl and the upper side of the shank. That shank also expands gently, in a subdued Ivarsson-esque shaping cue, and terminates with an elegant, wedding band-style sterling silver ring. Contrast staining is not easy, but Tupitsyn executes it here with sheer professionalism, using alternating dark and light stain to highlight the grain of this beautiful piece of briar.