work currently on my plate

One of two wings for a tallit, made of 4 layers of metallic/ silk organza. Colors are created by cutting away layers of fabric. I know, it still looks wonky but it will look beautiful on the cream colored charmeuse that it is destined for. Due by the end of January.

This will be a base for a wall hanging. I know, a really bright, acidic green. This piece needs to be done by Friday. Why is no work done yet? Because I just got the job yesterday evening. Why am I using the scarf that my sister in law just gave me? Because my client told me that the recipient loves "Van Gogh colors", the piece needs to be bright green and bright purple, "iris colors". This is the only bit of bright green in the house. Why did I accept the job? Because the person who asked is a good friend, even though she isn't so good at planning ahead.What we do for love.

This will be a challa cover. It is a presentation piece for someone who is being honored for running a nursery school for many years. For those of you who read Hebrew and are obsessive followers of this blog, Yes, it is the same text that I used for Raya's challa cover, it is the candle lighting prayer asking for good children.

The oddest thing for me about this piece is that I first met the honoree when I moved to New York in 1982. The honoree was a kid in the after school program where I was a teacher. granted, she was one of the big kids, too old for my class, but still, it is hard to think of a ten year old being honored for running a preschool for many years.

The honoree loves purple and pink. I plan to cut up a pink silk dress for the pink element. This project too has a very fast turn around time, so I need to use what I have on hand.

There are other pieces on deck as well, and a Torah reading to perfect so I don't sound like a fool on Shabbat. Time to get to work.

Comments

Connecting with the past

A few months ago I had a craving for my father’s chicken fricassee. If my father were still alive I would have called him up and he would have talked me through the process of making it. My father is no longer alive so I turned to my cookbooks and the recipes I found for chicken fricassee were nothing at all like the stew of chicken necks, gizzards and wings in a watery sweet and sour tomato sauce that I enjoyed as a kid. I assumed that the dish was an invention of my father’s. I then attempted to replicate the dish from my memory of it and failed. A couple of weeks ago I saw an article on the internet, and I can’t remember where, that talked about Jewish fricassee and it sounded an awful lot like the dish I was hankering after. This afternoon I went to the butcher and picked up all of the chicken elements of the dish, a couple of packages each of wings, necks and gizzards. My father never cooked directly from a cook book. He used to re...

The light themed tallit has been shipped!!!

I had begun speaking to Sarah about making her a tallit in the middle of August. It took a few weeks to nail down the design. For Sarah it would have been ideal if the tallit were completed in time for her to wear it on Rosh HaShanah., the beginning of her year as senior rabbi of her congregation. For me, in an ideal world, given the realities of preparing for the High Holidays I would have finished this tallit in the weeks after Sukkot. So we compromised and I shipped off the tallit last night. I would have prefered to have more time but I got the job done in time. This tallit was made to mark Sarah's rise to the position of senior rabbi but it was also a reaction to this year of darkness. She chose a selection of verses about light to be part of her tallit. 1) אֵל נוֹרָא עֲלִילָה God of awesome deeds ( from a yom kippur Liturgical poem) 2) אוֹר חָדָשׁ עַל־צִיּוֹן תָּאִיר May You shine a new light on Zion ( from the liturgy) 3) יָאֵר יְהֹ...

A Passover loss

My parents bought this tablecloth during their 1955 visit to Israel. It is made out of linen from the first post 1948 flax harvest. The linen is heavy and almost crude. The embroidery is very fine. We used this cloth every Passover until the center wore thin. You can see the cloth on the table in the background of this photo of my parents and nephew My Aunt Sheva bought my mother a replacement cloth. The replacement cloth is made out of a cotton poly blend. The embroidery is crude and the colors not nearly as nice. The old cloth hung in our basement. We used the new cloth and remembered the much nicer original cloth. I loved that my aunt wanted to replace the cloth, I just hated the replacement because it was so much less than while evoking the beauty of the original. After my father died my mother sat me down and with great ceremony gave me all of her best tablecloths. She also gave me the worn Passover cloth and suggested that I could mend it. I did. Year after year ...

sarah in nyc

Search This Blog