New Work - Smooth Brandy and Smooth Billiard

[brurobas]

Good afternoon my friends!

First of all Happy New Year to everybody!

Here are two of my latest pipes.

Smooth Brandy







Smooth Billiard







Please let me know what you think.

Sweet Smokes!

Bruno Robalo

[Thomas Tkach]

I'm not an expert, but your shanks seem universally too short, even with the extensions. The billiard looks much closer to ideal (in my eyes), but I'd still like the length of the extension (or maybe half the extension) to be removed from the stem length and added to the shank. Is there a reason you do your shanks so short?

For the brandy, I think there is too much going on in the middle with the extension and then the flared saddle. There are too two points where the diameter drops off, and I think it harms the flow of this piece. I'd have preferred a regular saddle, which *might help visually lengthen the shank.

Take this with two grains of salt and please correct me if I'm wrong.

[W.Pastuch]

The shaping is good but I think you are overdoing the decoration thing- I love adding interesting materials on my pipes as well, but here the colors don't match, the shapes neither and the effect is a very "noisy" transition where you can't really focus on the lines because the colors and materials take so much attention.
You could try to make two pipes, both the same shape and size, one of them with whatever decorations you want, and the other without- just briar and black ebonite. Less is more, go find that elegance that is right there, hidden under all the acrylic