La Biota Sandblasted Freehand Briar Pipe, Handmade in Italy

Description

A graduate of Italy’s prestigious Academia della Pipa, Michele Sottocasa has been making pipes for over a decade under the la Biota name. Prior to becoming a pipe-maker, Sottocasa trained and worked as a designer and art director, and la Biota pipes continue this drive towards a distinct aesthetic vision. The name, ‘la Biota,’ originally derives from ecology, and symbolizes the deep connection between humans and nature – a connection well represented by the hand-made tobacco pipe.

This la Biota bears the hallmarks of Sottocasa’s work as I’ve seen it so far: minimalistic, freehand shaping, crisp, ring-grained sandblasting, and excellent color composition. The blended-green ebonite and wine-red stain pair perfectly – as red and green generally do – but without looking at all gaudy or too bold. The pipe is also wonderfully lightweight, meaning it’ll suit any smoking situation you can imagine.

All la Biota pipes are made by hand by Michele Sottocasa in his workshop in the mountainous Northern region of Italy. Sottocasa prefers the wood lathe over the metal lathe traditionally used by pipe-makers, which he uses to painstakingly hand-shape each la Biota bowl, and hand-cut each la Biota stem. As Sottocasa strives to make each la Biota pipe unique and does not like to repeat shapes and design choices he has made in the past, every la Biota pipe is one of a kind – once it is gone, it is gone forever.

Details:

Length: 4.8″

Bowl Width: 19.5mm

Bowl Depth: 1.5″

Weight: 1.4oz / 42g