Smooth Bent Dublin with Mammoth (437) Tobacco Pipe

Micah "Yeti" Cryder's approach to shaping, while fairly difficult to firmly pin down, can be seen as something of a series of back-and-forths. At one end, the young carver walks a tightrope between overtly architectural and softly fluid shaping; at the other, a tedious balance between naturally informed and overtly organic cues. This bent Dublin is a clever culmination of those tropes, sitting squarely in the middle of the metaphorical axis points between Micah's most extreme feats of shaping.

Something of a Goldilocks piece, it's neither intensely muscular nor severely svelte, though the Dublin bowl does exude a sense of pronounced power in profile, making use of a wavy, undulating rim kissed with a circlet of plateau. Said plateau is framed by a rolling, beveled rim, and the piece's slightly forward sense of gesture serves to beckon the eye to the naturalesque display, further bolstering the asymmetrical shaping with tight licks of flame on all flanks. It's a fairly compact pipe overall too, and dressed in a warm, smoldering ruby contrast, it makes use of a creamy mammoth accent, offering a further touch of visual dynamism. Impressive stuff.