I'm not sure what pack this is made of. I'm not a smoker so I don't recognize the brand. Here's a closeup in case any of you want to take a guess.
My next purchase was a little purse. I got this at a swap meet and I think I paid quite a bit more, maybe $10.00.
Here's a closeup of this one since I also don't know the cigarette brand used:
It's amazing how many different types of art prisoners are into. So many amazing pieces are made from matchsticks, toilet paper, cardboard and just about anything else an inmate can get their hands on. But by far my favorite (besides my own pieces) is this wonderful work of art by Michael Harms. He must not be a smoker because his medium of choice is Ivory soap. Here is one of his intricately carved chairs:
I understand that they're trying to ban smoking in British prisons. Is this true? Then what will those inmates do to while away their time. I guess they'll have to start hoarding their soap!
For other stories about vending machines, cigarettes or the dangers of smoking, click here Sepia Saturday.
Into my head popped Burl Ives ....buzzing of the bees & the Cigarette Trees!
ReplyDeleteHa. I'll have to look that up on youtube.
DeleteNancy
Oh yes, Tony ... Big Rock Candy Mountain!
DeleteWow, how very creative. It just goes to show with a little time and thought, you can make wonderful things. The soap chair is fascinating and as a child we carved Ivory soap bars in sixth grade. Nothing ever that precise, but my father's uncle used to make delicate chairs like that out of tin soup or vegetable cans. Very impressive!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see the little chairs made from soup cans.
DeleteNancy
My father often received "Park Drive" (the UK working man's cigarette in the 50s and 60s) calendars and similar art made from flattened packets at Christmas. What a shame that these were not retained.
ReplyDeleteI have a more healthy and much older example of prisoner art, made by French POWs in Britain from the Napoleonic Wars, so early 1800s. They made these models from their meat ration (it seems they were well fed and ate more beef than I can afford now!) and used their hair to make the rigging. See my model at: http://goo.gl/WPFiw
Wow - I wonder if there is a special category for POW Prison Art. I imagine it would be a lot different from regular prison art because of the available items that could whipped into some type of art. Was the ship made from metal - meat ration tins? Imagine using hair for the rigging. Very ingenious.
DeleteNancy
The art is amazingly creative. I can't believe how attractive the purse is and how much use it got, judging from the wear on the clasp! The carved soap chair is wonderful. Such an interesting take (as usual) on the prompt!
ReplyDeleteActually the purse is in amazing shape - doesn't look like it's ever been used. The clasp is from a different section of the pack so looks much lighter in color. I think it looks kind of like a Dutch tile. Isn't it cute though? I should use it sometime. I'll have to go out and purchase a blue and white outfit.
DeleteNancy
My great aunt did wonders with old newspapers in the nursing home. My cousins son did lots of collages while in prison. Nothing along these craft lines though.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea there was a market for prison art, but your collection shows amazing creativity. I wonder if the red packages were Marlboro which had a horse and crown logo - not exactly like in your picture, but maybe?
ReplyDeleteWait a minute -- I think the red is Pall Mall. I just went to Postcardy's Sepia entry and she has a picture of Pall Mall. That was my mother's brand, too, so I should have recognized it.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think you're right. The red is Pall Mall. Now I wonder what the Blue and White one from the purse comes from.
DeleteMy father once had a rooster (in a frame) that was made of cigarette butts -- various filtered and non-filtered butts. It was amazing...but pretty nasty, too.
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to see that rooster made of cigarette butts. That's a new one to me.
DeleteI hadn't seen the cigarette wrapper art before. I got the impression that this was especially popular in California.
ReplyDeleteI would have been tempted to buy some when I was trying to collect folk art. I just saw several items on eBay when I searched for vintage cigarette wrappers. Also, Prison Art, Art Cigarette Wrapper
I don't recognize the blue and white design.
No, I can't figure out the blue and white one either. I'm glad I started my collection when I did. Things were so much cheaper.
DeleteLove the recycling art I see quite a bit of what I call 'wrapper art' when I visit villages in Cambodia. I adore the commitment to using every bit of available material to create a masterpiece.
ReplyDeleteIt's very reminiscent of trench art from the Great War in nature, although it really looks nothing like it. Thanks for sharing your collection. I can't imagine owning one of these myself, but they are intriguing.
ReplyDeleteIf you weren't in prison, how would you find the time to produce such things. Another lesson for me from Sepia Saturday.
ReplyDeleteoh these are extremely clever and lots of hours of work. I have never heard of these, but the purse is my favorite. We have a collection of some old ashtrays but they are tucked away somewhere. Thank you for posting this was new to me and very interesting....
ReplyDeleteThese are wonderful! I had not heard of cigarette packaging used in this way, or maybe I just never noticed. I had forgotten until someone mentioned cigarette butts, that my daughter used them in some pieces she did while in college. She took up smoking in college and art supplies were so expensive, that she often used scrap pieces of wood, broken drawers, all kinds of paper and I guess one day she thought she'd use the butts piling up in her ashtray.
ReplyDeleteThese are lovely. The prisoners today wouldn't be making things out of the current cigarette packets. In Australia, the cigarette packets are black with terrible pictures of cigarette related illnesses/patients on them.
ReplyDeleteGreat Blog We used to go to the prisions when we traveled through Mexico. They did all kinds of crafts but we would buy hammocks and actually had quite a business going for awhile. They made beautiful cotton and silk hammocks in different sizes. Thanks for the memory. Beth C
ReplyDeleteThese are amazing! Completely impressed. Sad that there's no way for the makers to receive the praise they deserve.
ReplyDeleteImpressive finds. True folk art is very hard to find today. Art made by prisoners or by tramps was once an honest way to survive in the first world.
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