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Two atarot...DONE!!!!

Usually when I do a project it is a collaboration between me and my client.  These two atarot are a collaboration between my client, my sister (who did the calligraphy) and me.

This is the atara for the bat mitzvah girl.


Below is the atara for her mother.



I didn't want the two to be identical despite being made using the same fabric and the same paint colors.











I want to show you how I built up the decorative stitching at the ends of the atara.


First I stitched rays in straight stitch using gold metallic thread.


I thought the diamond shaped stitching would add the right amount of punch. I use a thin bronze colored thread. It is meant to be used in sweater knitting to add a bit of elegant sheen. The thread was not made to run through a sewing machine. If you aren't used to the thread it breaks often and causes the user to do a great deal of cursing.  After so many years ( I have a giant cone of this thread) I have terrorized the thread into behaving nicely.




In the summer of 1982 I was on the arts and crafts staff at Camp Ramah in Palmer, Massachusetts. In retrospect they were very kind to hire me. Many of the crafts they were teaching that summer were new to me. Channah, one of the other staff members gave me a great piece of advice that I always follow. She said that anything you make looks better with a border.




Why yes, I did create this ribbon especially for this piece.

While I am stitching the long lengths of ribbon I always think that I must be just a little bit crazy to do it. It always feels like it's about a mile of ribbon ( in reality it is about a yard and a half) and it gets embroidered with dense stitching at least three times. 

In the end, I am always happy that I made the effort.  There are lots of fancy embroidery machines out on the market. I get a kick out of the fact that I am using combinations of pretty ordinary stitches to get some really lovely effects.


These will get shipped off to my client who has made both her tallit and her daughter's. She will be sewing these on to both tallitot.


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