Mike Philpot x Trenton Umeda Collab

If you haven’t seen this epic collab between Mike Philpot and Trenton Umeda yet, you are in for a treat. The contrast from the countless lip wraps and the refraction of light through Troutman’s Purple Lollipop will leave your jaw on the floor.
When I asked Trenton how many encalmos were on this piece, even he didn’t know. What he did say was that these aren’t even encalmos, they are all lip wraps, drawn on top of one another by hand from stringers. He also told us that this was the most work he has ever put into a piece.
We counted every single lip wrap on this piece, and there were 63 color and 91 black ones, for a total of 154! Not only was the work that Trenton had to do hard, but he took it to the next level by using his artistic sensibilities to plan out beautiful fades from one spectrum to the next.
As if all of the delicate and tedious work that Trenton had to do wasn’t enough, after Mike got handed the the prep, he then had to carefully coax every section into shape without distorting the integrity of the boldly defined lip wraps. Well, Mike’s dedication to perfection really shows in the shaping and assembly of this piece, he really went above and beyond on this one!
Having so many different colors in one section makes it incredibly hard to blow evenly, so when you look at the beautiful lines and curves all over this piece you have to appreciate Mike’s attention to detail and patience. 4 razor marias complement the stellar work throughout. There are two matching ones on the cold worked mouthpiece, one perfectly placed in the middle of the neck and a final smaller one that perfectly compliments the expertly tooled purple lollipop joint.
It’s easy to get lost in the aesthetics of this piece, but its function is more than the sum of these heady parts, this piece really chugs! Even at just under 7 inches tall, an upgraded version of Mike’s classic wraparound downstem and spinner jet will make sure you get a smooth and engaging hit, no matter the size of your dab!