Even if our mouths could fill with song as water fills the sea

One of the things that experience has taught me is that the best order for doing work is not always  the instinctive one.

I am working on an atara that includes the following text

אִלּוּ פִינוּ מָלֵא שִׁירָה כַּיָּם,

וּלְשׁוֹנֵנוּ רִנָּה כֲּהַמוֹן גַּלָּיו,

וְשִׂפְתוֹתֵינוּ שֶׁבַח כְּמֶרְחֲבֵי רָקִיעַ,

Even if our mouths could fill with song as

water fills the sea,

You can listen to a musical setting of the text while you read the rest of this post

I had already dyed the strips of silk that would be layered to become the sea.

Here you see them both separately and layered.

 I dyed the velvet that would become the sky.

You see it both wet, and dry

Years ago with less experience doing these things, I would have built the sea and then added the lettering. I want the letters to sit inside the sea, partially submerged and partially above the water the way a body is in and above the water when swimming. 

That meant that i needed to first do the lettering. I calligraphed the letters onto paper with a wide brush and black ink.

I then traced the letters onto sheer white silk gazar.

I flipped the silk over, and then affixed it to the back of the velvet using fuse-able web.This way, I have a guide for my embroidery.

I had originally thought I would embroider the letters my machine, but I wasn't happy with how stiff the lettering looked, so instead i went with hand embroidery for their flowing more calligraphic look. I know, it's time consuming.

I outline the letters from the reverse.

 I have been filling in the letters using a strand o blue metallic thread and a strand of midnight blue embroidery thread.

By embroidering the letters in a random order I can pretend that it isn't a big job