Todd Johnson
Todd Johnson is an American carver with a well-earned worldwide reputation built on over two decades of crafting highly sculptural and artistic pipes with impeccable attention to detail. Formally instructed in aesthetics with a masters degree from Yale, Todd has also studied all the greats of pipe making, including traveling to Tom Eltang's workshop in Denmark to learn firsthand from Danish masters including Anne Julie.
He has since incorporated an incredible array of influences into his own unique design style and inspired an entire generation of younger American carvers. He treats each piece as a special conversation between the briar and the state of the possible, and the most exquisitely artistic pipe in my personal collection is one of his creations. While many of his pipes offer quite gestural, curvaceous, and organic cues, the sculpture here is one of precise, straight architecture, an incredible straight Stack over eight inches in length.