Sandblasted Acorn (Kikuchi) (B) Tobacco Pipe

While Asami Kikuchi often creates more abstract carvings, the young carver obviously also devotes time to refining more classic shapes, albeit it from the Japanese and Danish schools. This example, a high waisted and curvaceous Acorn, sports a concave bevel along the rim, a pronounced heel, and a slight, lazy arc along the shank and stem. To add to the already pleasing feel in hand, it's been finished in a matte black sandblast, with ring grain, blasted flame grain, and blasted birdseye on display.

- Adam O'Neill