Cigar Anyone?

This piece is the 4th one I have done for this client. He came to my shop a few years back with an interesting project. His grandfather, pictured in the article, owned a cigar shop in Hartford CT many years ago and the client wanted to produce a family keepsake for his relatives to have in rememberance of their loved one. The article from the paper was not in the best shape, so I scanned it, cleaned it up in Photoshop and reprinted it for these pieces. At the bottom of the piece, held in a mylar pouch is what was left of the tobacco leaves that the client's grandfather had used to roll his cigars; he split the leaves evenly amongst the 4 pieces. Instead of using traditional materials to created these showpieces, I used my laser to create a wooden mat in the style of an old cigar box. I replicated the cigar shop's logo within Adobe Illustrator and laid out a series of lines to frame the article and create an opening for the tobacco leaves. The laser created an interesting burn pattern on the wood which reflected the look of a hot branded logo on a wooden box.

We fittingly used the Havana series moulding from Larson Juhl to frame these pieces and Museum glass to cover and protect the artwork.