scrapbook treize

These odd looking things are actually old cigar molds. One of my relatives, upon immigrating to America, took jobs in various factories to support their family. Occasionally they would commandeer certain objects for themselves, and they have since been passed on for a few generations. My mom is madly in love with these, and has them hanging right across from the main entry way into our family room. As a result, they are the first things you see when you enter our house. Everyone always wants to know what they are, and why are they hanging on our wall. Even though they are kind of ugly, I must say I love these too. I love the history behind them and the uniqueness of them. We are the only people I have ever met that even have cigar molds. They provide an interesting contrast to the shelves, family portraits, and my own art work that hangs on the rest of the wall. The unexpected aesthetic quality of them makes them visually compelling. While they were designed to make cigars, we have no repurposed them. They aren't art, even though we try to make them out to be great pieces. From time to time I think about, in comparison to the ones we have (my mom has two and so does my grandmom), how many were lost. I'm sure that factory eventually closed down, or no longer exists. Today mass machines probably make the cigars. It's amazing to see what kind of technology was available then as well.