Sandblasted Bent Dublin Sitter with Bamboo Tobacco Pipe

Leveraging a background in woodworking and a keen eye for detail, Trey Rice crafts gorgeous pipes that draw on the North American shaping tradition but are singularly his own. This bent Dublin Sitter is a more organic, Freehand-esque composition than we're used to seeing from Rice, but it nevertheless showcases his evocative style and highly functional engineering. As one might expect from the title, this piece is a comfortable Sitter, possessing a flat, slightly angled heel that enables the entire form to rest confidently, without the aid of a pipe stand. From that aforementioned heel, the bowl begins its steady upward flare, expanding from the conservative, rearward-oriented base to a broad, plateau-crowned rim that oversees a healthy tobacco chamber. Out back, a trim shank emerges from the bowl's base and quickly gives way to three knuckles of bamboo, with these knuckles curving upward to meet a smartly bent saddle stem. While most of the bamboo is dark in complexion, the nodes themselves are vibrant and warm, offering a touch of color to the pipe's otherwise muted palette. A dark sandblast dresses the rest of the stummel and highlights rippling growth rings across the bowl's flanks.