Skip to main content

Mimi’s tallit–imperfect, but complete


mimi (14)
Mimi’s tallit has been a struggle.  Yesterday my sister asked me if  the source of my difficulties was my client. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Both my client are her family are about as wonderful as one can hope for with a client.

I think that I came up with a plan that was harder to carry out than I had expected. I also made some mistakes that were just plain stupid. There were pieces of  the process that I ought to have thought through a bit better.

The end result is frankly lumpier than makes me happy.

Elements of this tallit though are really beautiful.
mimi (13)
This is the back view of the tallit.
mimi (11)
Night
100_2678
Day
mimi (4)
The atara in progress.
mimi (5)
The gazar  of the atara over the brocade. the brocade is not all that beautiful on it’s own, but I love how it shimmers through the gazar.
mimi (6)
The right side of the brocade , I know, it’s ugly. But look how terrific it looks completed with the gold shimm,ering through the dark blue.
100_2679

Mimi and her family show up soon to tie the tzitzit.mimi (7)
Labels:

Comments

  1. SandyJune 13, 2012 at 4:32 PM

    I think this is going to be one that you will be surprised about when you see it again some months down the road. Without someone knowing all the things you see when you have had your nose against it for weeks, it looks great. Or at least the photos do.

    You just need to forget the little things and look at the whole. Hard to do!

    Please do yourself a favour and don't tell all those details to the client...they will catch your negative feelings. I am hoping they just love it and tell you so!!

    All the best. and here's to a glorious one to follow to renew your faith in your abilities!
    Hugs,
    Sandy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sarah JacobsJune 13, 2012 at 6:07 PM

    Mimi and her mom just left. I was upfront with them saying that it is imperfect but terrific. I find that it's easier to be honest. No, I didn't point out the flaws one by one, but I talked in general about how some things were just difficult...despite the difficulties there is much that will give mimi pleasure. she loved how thre is so much for her to see and focus on in the tallit.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love hearing from my readers. I moderate comments to weed out bots.It may take a little while for your comment to appear.

Popular posts from this blog

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...
1 comment
Read more

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...
8 comments
Read more

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 ...
2 comments
Read more