Drew Estate Cigar Box Tape

My fascination with cigar boxes spans nearly the length of my life. One of my first pencil boxes in elementary school was a cigar box, though I don’t recall the brand. Through my youth, cigar boxes were stacked on my father’s workbench, corralling errant bolts and unmatched screws, oblivious to the wonders inside. And last weekend at a wedding, the betrothed couple gave gifts to their groomsmen, concealed in elegantly crafted wooden cigar boxes. This wonderment naturally increased when I found an enjoyment of cigars, it’s true. Though not significantly.

This is a strip of cigar box tape from Drew Estate. You may recognize their name because of their popular brand of Acid cigars. The tape is die-cut to a certain length, like postage stamps, and designed to be cut from a dispenser. Ostensibly, it seals a cigar box to help maintain humidity and prevent tampering and contamination. But the tape unmistakably serves the same purpose as the object it binds: to enhance the beautiful mystique of the cigar box.

Mark Khaisman’s Packing Tape Artwork

Ukrainian born mixed media artist Mark Khaisman uses translucent packing tape on Plexiglas panels with a light source behind to create incredible images that have the shadow and depth of large scale paintings. Khaisman uses several layers of tape to give the pieces contrast and thinner stripes of tape to achieve smaller “brush strokes” and utilizes the natural crinkles to create subtle texture as needed. The artist achieves even complex features in the faces of his characters. It’s pretty incredible. The most original use of tape since this.

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