Manduela (Manduela Riger-Kusk)

Manduela is the brand under which Danish maker Manduela Riger-Kusk signs her own pipes. Known for bodies well below the usual size yet with fully settled proportions, and for colorful stems. The maker learned the trade working with Poul Ilsted, and through this line is counted among the bearers of the Svendborg Piber tradition on the island of Fyn.

A Shape Kept in Hand

The first thing that stands out in Riger-Kusk's work is scale. Chambers small enough to disappear in the palm are scaled down without breaking the proportional relationships expected of a full-size pipe, leaving a far narrower margin for error at the lathe and on the sandpaper than usual. In her shape repertoire, bulldog and dublin interpretations stand out. The multi-faceted shank work she inherited from her teacher is the second half of her signature: the faces of the shank are flattened so they meet each other along sharp lines, and the lines where these planes join have to come out perfect. She uses briar for bodies; for the stem she works materials such as ebonite and cumberland, in a range of colors. This choice of color sets her apart within the generally restrained stem sensibility of the Danish school.