On the road of Ella's tallit

Sometimes I wonder about the wisdom of posting about pieces while they are in progress. While I have a pretty good idea about where I am going with a piece and where I want to end up, often my client is going on blind trust.


Sometimes, I feel like showing a piece to client while I'm in the early stages, is a bit like getting off the road at a rest stop on the New Jersey turnpike and asking, " Isn't New York amazing??? '.

Well, Ella's tallit is still along some rest stop. The frustrating thing about working on this tallit is that I have to let each section dry before I add any more to it. I love painting on silk. It's crazy fun to work wet, that is wetting the silk before I begin to paint. When you work wet, the colors bleed into one another in a really lovely way.

Ella's tallit needs me to work dry. So I drape a garbage bag over my table, paint a little, wait for what I have painted to dry, and then paint a little more. It's lots of little bursts of energy.

The vine has been laid out. The basic grape shapes have been established. They still need details to bring them to life. I have added adorable vine curlicues on the vines. I still need to add the fat grape leaves. I added the first batch of grain in a yellow dye mixed with powdered gold flakes.

Once the vine is busied up, and the water painted in, Ella will no longer feel like she is in a highway rest stop.