Cheap tricks save the day

This logo was designed by my client's uncle who emigrated to Israel in 1948. The family name is Benjamin. The wolf image comes from Jacob's death-bed blessing of his son, Benjamin, who he compares to a wolf. The Benjamin family has used this logo on t- shirts for family reunions, and even on checks. The great nephew of the man who designed the logo is having his bar - mitzvah in Australia.

His aunt and uncle decided to have me make him a tallit bag and asked the bar- mitzvah boy for his input before I got to work. I was told that the bag needed to be black and it also needed to include the wolf from the logo. The bar- mitzvah boy also wanted gold on the bag.The boy's bar mitzvah actually includes the reading with Jacob's blessings to his sons.

I had a piece of wonderful black wool flannel which is deeply black. My client was happy because it seemed to be just the thing. My client also decided to include the following line from the boy's reading " ...and he blessed them, each one according to his own blessing did he bless them.", along with the boy's name in Hebrew.

I was trying to figure out how to transfer the image of the wolf to the black wool. I decided to stoop to a cheap trick. I printed out the image, and then cut it out. I then took a white oil pastel stick and used the cut out wolf as a stencil on a scrap of the wool. I was then left with a rough outline in white.

Then I stitched inside of the wolf shape using gold metallic thread. I tried to stitch in the direction that the hair would grow so that it would look fairly naturalistic. I admit that I have not seen too many wolves up close, so I just pretended that the wolf was a dog and proceeded from there.

Astonishing myself, it actually worked. I have been admiring my wolf all afternoon. Now that the wolf is done, I have to figure out how to fit in the rest of the design elements. One thought is to create a landscape out of the text. I have to think about that and try it out on a different scrap. it might be a brilliant idea, or it might just be nuts.

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sarah in nyc

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