drawings > Pipes > 02.01.2012_axmacher_bamboo_pair.jpg
When I decided to get this pipe, I broke two of my own rules. The first was that I'd resolved not to spend any more money on pipes until at least the Chicago 2012 show. The second, I'd decided that I would not buy pipes made by artisans that I don't know personally. But when I saw this pipe by Frank Axmacher on the Scandpipes site, I was so captivated that both rules went out the window. I saw what is to me the essence of the Japanese paradox: playful lightness and menacing dread, in a work of deftly deceptive simplicity and graceful beauty.