Christian Ruetz Natural Sandblasted “Broken Gaia” Handmade Briar Pipe, New

Description

Tyrol’s Christian Ruetz may well be the most exciting and acclaimed pipe maker to have come out of Austria since Peter Matzhold. A committed pipe smoker since his youth, Ruetz crafted his first pipe in 2014, using a carving knife gifted by his father-in-law and wood from a cherry tree. Ruetz was, from then on, hooked and soon moved onto briar, though he has maintained a relatively low-tech approach to pipe construction throughout in his career. Though Ruetz’s experiments with briar began a decade ago, in recent years his exercises in style have coalesced into an instantly recognizable identity, which has coincided with a no less than meteoric rise within the international pipe community and industry. As is something of a tradition for today’s artisans, Ruetz has spent time in the workshop of Denmark’s Tom Eltang further refining his techniques, yet it must also be stressed that Ruetz’s design philosophy is distinct from—and, to an extent, contrary to—that of much of modern Scandinavian pipe making. Against the functionalism of Eltang et al., Ruetz is far more of a Romantik. In his own words, his style is encompassed by three words: Natur, Rauheit, and Imperfektion, (roughly, “nature,” “ruggedness/rawness,” and “imperfection”). This style and underlying ethos comes from a life spent recognizing the natural world for what it is—including the sublime, towering ranges of the Eastern Alps visible from his workshop windows.

The “Broken Gaia” is one of Christian Ruetz’s signature shapes, one that neatly embodies his design philosophy and general worldview. At its core, the shape is characterized by two elements: one is its voluptuous, slightly canted bowl, whose form sits halfway between a plump apple and a cobra; and two is its distinctive, “torn” transition from shank to stem. The former is particularly well suited to sandblasting, with Ruetz’s approach typically capturing layers of ring grain at the bowl’s front face, which radiate and dissipate as they move across its flanks. The latter, on the other hand, acts as a staging area for what Ruetz calls the doppelte Borke (English: “double bark”), a style of briar stem inlay reminiscent of those of Denmark’s Age Bogelund, yet with a far more naturalistic bent. Here the two briar sections of the pipe are both carved from the outermost plateaux of a block of briar, resulting in a mirrored effect evoking ruptures in the earth—a broken Gaia.

 

Details:

Length: 4.7″ / 119.3mm

Bowl Width: 0.76 / 19.30mm

Bowl Depth: 1.35″ / 34.29mm

Weight: 1.5oz / 44g