Creating Art Using Cigar Bands
Do you keep company with someone who smokes cigars? Put them on the scale, cigar vs. sweetheart, and the sweetheart would surely win. So you might as well make the best of it and make use of the cigar bands. In particular, the bands from Cuban cigars are desirable because they are so rare. And, like other such advertising identifiers, they are beautiful.
What can you do with these bands? Think work of art. Try decoupage. As your smoker unwraps his stogy, ask him to please remove the band carefully and save it for you. When you have a good number of these bands, you can begin to think about how to display them. If you are impatient and want a quick project, put them into a picture frame. Purchase a piece of foam board. Paint it a color that will set off the colors of the bands. Then place the collage in a frame that shows off the beauty of the bands.
This collage idea can be enhanced and beautified if you take the project to the next level and create a shadow box. You can have a shadow box custom made by a craft store or framing store, but this choice can be expensive. This project can be done more inexpensively if you use a ready-made shadow box frame. Of course, when you use a ready-made frame, you need to fit the contents into the size of the frame rather than fitting the frame around the contents. This is relatively easy with something as small as cigarbands. As you lay out your shadow box, think of other small objects that fit in with this smoking motif. Some examples might be match books, color-coordinated ribbons, wine corks, and postcards or other pictures that depict life in Cuba.
If you want a larger, more impressive project, try a decoupage project on a small table or coffee table. Mod Podge is a product that has been in the stores for forty years. It makes it easy to artistically place the bands on the surface of the table, glue them down, and apply the Mod Podge. When the collage is this large, you might want to add more than just cigarbands. Wine labels would make a natural partner. It’s probable that the person who enjoys the big brown smoke also enjoys a glass of fine wine. Wine labels have a beauty of their own that complements the beauty of the cigarband. And if you are an adventurous wine taster, you can quickly accumulate a collection of highly varied wine labels.
As your collection of bands and labels accumulates, you can take the display to an even greater level: the family room wall. Yes, you can paste your bands and labels to your wall. This display is most effective if the room has a chair rail. You want to keep the labels above the rail on a single wall so that it doesn’t become overpowering. But think of how unique your room will be when it is decorated with the beautiful cigarbands and wine labels.
