Sandblasted Acorn with Bamboo Tobacco Pipe

After picking up pipe smoking in college, Trey Rice faced a dilemma — he wanted to smoke artisan pipes but could not afford them. So, Rice decided to take matters into his own hands by making artisan pipes himself. Now a polished pipe maker, Rice crafts pipes outside of Fort Worth, Texas, primarily drawing on Danish, English, and American pipe making traditions for inspiration. Rice makes many classic, recognizable shapes and accents them with a variety of materials such as bamboo, boxwood, horn, and his own silverwork.

This Acorn by Trey Rice possesses the shape's traditional sharp heel, which displays tightly-packed freckles of birdseye exposed by the rugged sandblast. From the heel, growth rings radiate outwards in concentric circles as they climb the supple walls to the rim, which curves inwards towards the chamber that is topped with a chamfered rim dressed in a smooth finish. Fittingly for a bowl with a natural namesake, it is paired to an organic accent, as a petite briar shank flows into a sinuous length of bamboo. Moreover, to match the dark hues of the sandblast, the bamboo is of a cooler, walnut shade, while its knuckles provide a textural parallel to the craggy growth rings. The shank end is affixed with vulcanite, which joins to the saddle stem via a metal tenon that securely fits into the mortise. The vulcanite stem demurely curves back towards parallel, giving the profile a subtle recurve and lending an understated elegance to the entire composition.