Sandblasted Morta Bent Dublin with Horn Tobacco Pipe

Sabina Santos often incorporates exotic accenting materials and alternative mediums in her work, delivering spectacular designs that demonstrate her creativity and love of vibrant color palettes. That said, it's somewhat surprising that this piece is the first morta pipe we've received from the Portuguese artisan. It's a stylized bent Dublin full of remarkable elements that combine to form an impressive and fresh interpretation of a classic, time honored shape.

Aside from the eye catching colors displayed by this composition, I found myself constantly going back to the wide, inflated rim. It's incredibly broad and tapers dramatically down toward the firm, slightly protruding heel. The sharp taper of the bowl's fore combined with its canted disposition create the impression of forward momentum, adding dynamism to the profile. The stummel was crafted from morta, a material renowned for its light weight and more flavor-neutral smoking characteristics. The jet-black material is also well-known for the fascinating grain patterns that can be unveiled when it's sandblasted, and Sabina has taken full advantage of that here with uniform striations of grain traversing the bowl's surface. The creamy hues of the horn shank extension starkly contrast the stummel's dark coloration while additional contrast is supplied by the toffee-hued ebonite stem.