A border for the Spanish Golden Age challa cover

The first of this series of challa covers was given as a wedding gift to the Jewish bride marrying the groom of Hispanic orgin. The center image for the Challa cover comes from a compilation of images of syangogues built in Spain before 1492.

The next challa cover in the series is being given as a wedding gift to the son of friends. The groom's father comes from a Sephardic family that had lived in Turkey and Egypt. As I was going through my stash looking for just the right border fabric, I didn't find anything that struck my fancy.

If I don't have exactly what I need, it is often easier to construct something that will work than to go out shopping. It was time for a bit of inspiration. I decided to mine my book of Jewish Illuminated Manuscripts for possible ideas for the border. A bible from Lisbon circa 1483 yielded this image. Here you can see both my adaptation and what I was copying from.

Detail from the Lisbon Bible

My variation on the Lisbon border, painted on velvet

Since I took those photos, I embroidered details using gold metallic thread. The handwork details take it up a notch.

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