Thank you grandpa

When more than ten years ago my sweet grandfather died, my grandmother gave me his collection of cigar bands stored in a cigar box and old square tin. The boxes were filled with post envelopes (my grandparents owned a post office when they were young) with serial codes written on it. I didn't really know what to do with it and so the boxes were stored in a drawer of my desk for about 12 years.

A couple of months ago I found the collection again when cleaning up my old room at my parents house. I still don't know why my grandmother gave me the cigar bands but I decided I had to do something with it. As soon as I opened the boxes a scent of cigars reached me (which still reminds me of my grandfather). Inside the envelopes I found a lot of golden cigar bands with illustrations of birds, butterflies, flags, insects, logos and flowers. I started to sort the bands by series and discovered a lot of double ones. I was kind of surprised to see that the vintage images are so beautiful en colorful! I decided to make an artwork of it and give it a nice place in my home. I simply glued the bands next to each other on a white paper. I love the golden gloss when the sun shines on it!

I also cut off the sides of some of the cigar bands and glued only the illustrations on some book pages. I hung it on the back of the door to my study room with washi tape.