Adam Davidson: Smooth Tomato with Silver Bamboo Tobacco Pipe

Since 2015, Smokingpipes has hosted the American Pipe-Making Exposition, celebrating the ingenuity and talent of artisan carvers across the United States. However, in 2024 the Exposition expanded to include all pipe makers around the world — the Global Pipe-Making Exposition, the first of its kind. Though broadened in participation, the Expo's format remained consistent with previous years: Artisans designed and fashioned pipes centered on a singular theme, distinct to each year, expressing the motif according to their own creative visions. For the first Global Pipe-Making Exposition, we returned to the Expo's very first theme: bamboo.

As much a machinist, technician, and industrial designer as he is an artisan pipe maker, Adam Davidson never disappoints when participating in the Expo. His previous entries have defied the conventional understanding of pipe making, and he regularly employs skill sets separate from pipe making in order to accomplish his submissions. This Tomato is no exception. In silhouette, the pipe appears as a relatively standard bamboo-accented pipe; however, the bamboo is, in fact, fashioned from silver sheet that Davidson hammered, bent, and hand-shaped to mimic the natural texture and profile of bamboo. The bowl continues the organic motif, expanding at the transition into a broad, squat Tomato shape, and the entire composition offers a beautiful interplay between natural and metallic elements. Moreover, the shape as a whole hearkens to designs from historic artisan Jørn Micke — among Davidson's most notable influences — who often fashioned similar Tomato shapes with angled aft sides to the bowl and sleek, elongated shanks.