Skip to main content

Creating light

 

I had to make the physical reality of the materials I had at hand match the vision inside my head so I could complete Ari’s atara.  I stitched the chiffon down to the layers of fabrics.

 

I then stitched around the word  ohr/light with silver metallic thread. The stitching would draw the eye to the word.

SAM_1963

I added lines of the silver stitching over the two other words in the verse, illustrating the verse “ in Your light, we see light“.SAM_1967

But, then I had a second thought, beading the letters.

SAM_1971

I know, it’s a slightly deranged idea. But I had a beading needle and my eyeglass prescription is pretty good, and I have lots of teeny beads.  The process was obsessive but took less time than I had expected.

SAM_1975

I also couched four rows of the silver Lurex yarn to the atara to border the piece. 

I added dark bugle beads  to the rays of light . You will be able to see those later in the post. Photographing this tallit has been surprisingly difficult. There are so many layers of subtle twinkle, shimmer and glimmer that it seems to have thrown all of the sensors in my camera our of whack.

 

This tallit is interesting because while it is in many ways serene, it’s really busy, there is so much going on. The silk is made up of layers and layers of dots of color  that have been further embellished with beads and sequins. The pinot/corner pieces and atara/ neckband are made up of several layers of fabric that are designed to interact visually with one another, not to mention the additional hand painting  and beading on the top layer of chiffon.  I’m struck though by how unflashy this piece is, despite how much is going on when you look closely. The visual complexity draws you in to keep looking at the tallit.

Yesterday I finished assembling the whole thing.

SAM_1985SAM_1986SAM_1987SAM_1989

You can see the dark gunmetal colored bugle beads below.SAM_1990SAM_1991

Here you can see some of the beading on the tallit itself.

SAM_1993SAM_1994SAM_1995SAM_1998

SAM_1986

Today I ship the tallit off to Ari, in a couple of days we will tie the tzitzit together via Skype.  I can’t wait for her to see the tallit in person.

Labels:

Comments

  1. SandyFebruary 27, 2014 at 2:43 PM

    So good to see it all together. I love the addition of the beads and the layers of meaning with the stitching across the other words. The layers of dye really work to give an infinity perspective.
    To me this one comes under the heading of 'Sophisticated'.
    Well done! I hope she appreciates the meaning as well as the look.
    Sandy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kathleen C.February 27, 2014 at 3:46 PM

    I think this may be one of my favorite pieces you have made. So beautiful with so much detail, and yet a kind of restraint too. I think Sandy has called it right... it's sophisticated in its design sense.
    Lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sarah JacobsFebruary 27, 2014 at 5:06 PM

    One of the great things about working with Ari is how definite she has been about her likes and dislikes. NO BLUE. NOT GOLD. HATES LAVENDAR. also Ari and her mother have been offering me feedback as i went along...they didn't publish their comments publicly but we have been conversing back and forth through the entire process... Those conversations back and forth have helped me tremendously. I have been thinking as I have been working about my colleagues who sew wedding dresses... I don't know if bat mitzvah is a more rational time but my clients have nearly all of them been thoughtful and pretty terrific to work with...In 20 years of doing this there have been only one or two bat-zilla's-- at most. All the rest have been delightful from beginning to end.

    As for Ari appreciating the meaning...we studied the texts together. So yes, she does understand the meaning of the text. For me the whole point of doing this work is to get my clients to understand what a tallit is all about before we talk about what it ought to look like. it means that together we can create smarter work that can remain meaningful over a long period of time.

    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