I thought yours came out nice, as well, Stu. What I like most about it, was it was easily recognizable. I saw the pic as I was skimming and did an immediate about-face.
I am very impressed with the piece so far. I haven't used it much, native (sans downstem) but the more I use it, the more impressed I am.
This is an entirely different beast, than the Leviathan. I'm not saying its better or worse. In fact, I wouldn't want to make a call. I would probably go with the Lev for 2 reasons. Friendship and that Lattice perc. HOWEVER, function-wise... artistically... Sam's piece, hangs with any in my collection. Without knowledge of any piece and a blind test... this would go with one of the Leviathans.
One of the things I like about this piece, I really took notice of in my PM discussion with bOObs. I noted Sam's use of the curves in the showerhead, body and placement/size of his cuts... would alleviate my concerns for chug. The piece does exhibit some chug-like tendency, but it really doesn't translate to your pull, which comes smooth. Adding the extra downstem/perc though... wow!
Sans downstem, you're actually adding a decent amount of extra vapor volume, with the cavernous downstem. Speaking of which, this piece has the most gorgeous Dewaar I have ever seen! Really, all the lines of this piece, just flow into one another. Each piece, beautiful and as a whole, stunning. The pulls are a bit massive, going native with this piece. It hits similar to the Leviathan bubbler, configured this way. One hitter territory. Adding the showerhead from Mike aka oregonglassblower, smooths things out tremendously. You don't really lose any flavor, as the water level drops to the bottom of the inner perc and is then drawn out the outer, where it percs. This results in the ability to take massive rips. Stupid, big rips. Yet... smoooooooth. You really have to push it, to coax a cough out of this piece configured this way.
My only beefs are minor. First, I don't have any issue with the wiggle ion the mouthpiece. Sam sends a note explaining its intentional and don't try to correct it. I haven't felt uncomfortable with its seating yet, even with the wiggle. The glass on the mouthpiece is obviously thinner. At first this bothered me... then I realized why. Its to reduce weight and stress on the joint. Though, even taking into account the broken piece.. I believe that joint is a place of strength. Mine is solid, clean, smooth and built like a tank.
We are truly lucky to have had 2 extremely talented glass blowers make, insanely good pieces, for stupid good prices. Just spending less than the price of many name brands, that don't work any better. 2 HQ pieces for less than the price of one. Plus, both pieces are more than material objects. Both were made with the intention of making something special.
I am notoriously forgiving with a lot of my grades. Especially with my early glass and didn't know drag from percolating. Even taking that early leniency into account and certainly judging with a more critical eye, due to early breakage/disappointment. Sam and his crew at Glassblowersdirect.com deserve a hearty amount of gratitude and an indisputable A+.
Sorry the review and video aren't up to my usual standards. I told Sam that I would do my first full video review on his piece and I intend to do so. Its been a 2 hour pain in the ass, doing a rough video and this review w/o my laptop. I hope it lives up to previous reviews.
HD 1080 full-screen