Scott Thile: Sandblasted Strawberry Wood Bent Bulldog with Spalted Tamarind (OP2) (539) Tobacco Pipe

Every year since 2015, we here at Smokingpipes have hosted the American Pipe-Smoking Exposition, an event that showcases the work and talent of some of America's most esteemed artisans. Each Exposition is centered around a particular theme that challenges the participating carvers to flex their creative muscles. For 2023, the Expo highlights alternative mediums, with the contributors required to submit pipes composed of materials other than briar. To that end, Scott Thile has submitted this striking bent Bulldog rendered from gorgeous strawberry wood.

With a background as a musician and piano tuner, Scott Thile wouldn't be immediately thought of as someone with an affinity for pipe making, but since the age of 16, Thile has held a deep admiration for the craft and all things pipe related. A pipe-making autodidact, Thile crafts his pieces with an artist's eye, meaning each of his shapes comes across as compositional wholes with zero superfluous details. Though Thile crafts a wide range of shapes, the bent Bulldog is a design he's returned with some regularity, and it's easy to see why when considering this particular iteration.

While the Bulldog is an inherently muscular shape, in Thile's hands, it becomes something quite distinctive, as the artisan manages to maintain the form's characteristic brawniness while imbuing it with a clear sense of fluidity. It's readily apparent in this rendition, which sees a bulky, full-bodied bowl balanced at the fore of a languid curve of shank and stem. The heavy-set bowl, though firm of stature and stout of build, never overshadows the rest of the composition, as the shank's firm, structural lines naturally draw the eye, even as they taper upward into a demurely curved stem. Thile further unifies the shape's muscular and gestural qualities by utilizing tamarind at the rim and junction. These tamarind accents bookend the stummel and foster a visual symmetry across both ends of the briar, from the ridge- and beadline-wrapped bowl to the gracefully bent shank and stem. The tamarind's smooth complexion and light coloration naturally offsets the sandblasted strawberry wood that makes up the heel and shank, adding a touch of contrast to the otherwise dark and craggy body of the shape.