Konstantin Shekita: Bamboo Calabash with Mammoth and Boxwood Tobacco Pipe

Since 2015, Smokingpipes has held the American Pipe Making Exposition, a celebration of America's finest artisans who gather together a bespoke selection of their best work, all revolving around a central theme. For 2024, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Expo, Smokingpipes has expanded participation to include entrants from around the world in what will henceforth be known as the Global Pipe Making Exposition. Fittingly, 2024's theme is bamboo, the same as the first Expo, and it's an opportunity for carvers worldwide to show off their most inventive, innovative compositions.

This Calabash from Ukrainian artisan Konstantin Shekita is shockingly bent and remarkably expressive, with its outline comprising a steep S-curve that promises an easy jaw-hanging stature regardless of this pipe's appreciable weight. There's really nothing reserved about this pipe whatsoever; it's an unapologetically organic take on the timeless form that reimagines the old gourd standard as made from a serpentine length of bamboo. The bamboo here acts as the central point of this pipe's construction, and its 16 knuckles make a tight curl from one end to the other, descending sharply near the midsection before flaring out into the condensation chamber at the fore. Both ends of the dense grass terminate on the same level and are nearly symmetrical, with the slightest hint of a right curve at the aft section. Asymmetry is expected to some degree in bamboo, as it's remarkably difficult to get it to grow completely straight while remaining usable for pipes, though this achievement strikes me as significantly more difficult: growing bamboo in a consistent enough U-shape to be used as a Calabash with relatively little modification. The surfaces of the bamboo are natural and showcase a massively gnarly, rugged texture, especially through the fore portion, with the nodules lining the knuckles through the aft side being inlaid with domed discs of boxwood.

A broad accent of mammoth acts as the junction here and caps the aft side of the bamboo, additionally mounting a long, deeply curved saddle stem of black vulcanite, and its been shaped to continue the knurled look of the bamboo at the right side. Shekita has infused this pipe with an incredible amount of detail, and these small shaping elements evidence that fact, with the mammoth accent's complementary structure matched by similar shaping at the chamber cap. Said cap comprises a trumpeting, Mushroom-like dome whose vast overhang is defined by a crisp ridgeline, its thick walls surrounding a broad chamber benefitting from ample space within this pipe's Calabash-engineered bamboo. Given the ruggedness of this fore part of the bamboo, Shekita has carved the lower portion of the chamber cap to maintain the lines of myriad nodes that dot the final knuckle: as if the natural bamboo were willing the briar to assume a form better befitting its surroundings. The mammoth accent at the junction is joined by a small domed node at the back of the bowl and an ovoid plaque behind the "shank" that reads "Shekita." The only bit of briar in this pipe's construction is the chamber cap, and it's finished in a warm, light, mahogany-toned smooth finish that reveals dense birdseye across the rim, harmonizing well with the pale tones of the bamboo.