sarah in nyc

This morning, yesterday’s deep plums had dried to a lighter shades.  That meant that I had to get back to work spattering droplets of color on the tallit. When I work I keep thinking about my clients’ deep likes and dislikes.   Ari hates lavender. The tallit should not be blue. I keep hearing her voice in my head as I work. last Shabbat I attended a synagogue not my own. This weeks Torah reading talked about Bezalel, the architect/artist/ craftsman of the Sanctuary.The rabbi talked about the two types of architects/ artists mentioned in Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead . Now that I’m not a starry eyed teenager reading the book, but a working artist, all I can tell you is that Howard Roark the architect who refuses to listen to his clients, and only listens to his muse is a major league jackass. If you do commission work, the piece needs to meet the needs of your client.  It isn’t just that your client is paying the bill .  If you accept a commission they you need to...

This morning, Ari’s tallit looked like this.  One of the problems with building up color in diluted layers is that along the way there are lots of less than beautiful stages. Yes, if I told you this was a drop cloth, you might agree. but if you build up the colors in thin thin layers you get a luminescent color shifting quality.   A little later on today, the tallit looked like this. I’m really pleased with my high tech upside down jar method of suspending the silk to dry.   Here is the silk as it is drying over a collection of glass jars. I have also salted the fabric to get more variation in color density. Ari want the silk to look like a galaxy. This silk is till damp so it is darker than it’s final color.   I’m trying to match the color on the stamp. I’m not far off. I had trouble getting the color in these photos to read as they actually are. The photo below is probably closest. The silk is laid out on an opened black garbage bag....

When our oldest spent a semester in China, we used to Skype with her weekly.  My husband quips that it was then that he realized that we had entered the 21st century.  There are moments when it feels like we are living in the times described in  science fiction of the 1950’s. My latest client found me by way of this blog.  She lives across the country. Yesterday, we had our initial meeting via Skype. After a bunch of discussion back and forth Ari, and I nailed down a design. The text is באורך נראה אור in Your light we see light We recite that  line from Psalms as we put on the tallit. Ari likes the look of the galaxy, a fitting choice for a tallit.  The deadline for completing this tallit is really soon, so we had to work with silks I have at hand. I will be making this tallit out of this crepe de chine . You can see how nice it is. I didn’t have the right dyes on hand last night, but I painted a swatch of the silk using acrylic paints. Tod...

Often snow just makes me happy. This particular storm though seemed to have no redeeming qualities. last night my husband and I went out to see a play. On our way home, Broadway at 96th street was a nearly impassable pond. We couldn’t figure out how to get to the sidewalk without wading through knee deep  dirty ice water, so we walked in the right hand lane of the street. Given the recent series of fatal accidents in our immediate neighborhood it wasn’t the most comfortable choice. We went to a funeral this morning. it took us twice as long to get to the funeral home as usual because each corner required a complicated  negotiation with the terrain. By the time the funeral was over, the situation was vastly improved.  I think the puddle below was  just less than six inches deep. This was actually a vast improvement. I did still have to cook. I  decided to just cook everything  in the oven.  We are eating meatballs, roasted spiced potato wedges ...

  Earlier in the process, this was the wonkiest of the three challah covers.  Even the plaid red border looked like it may have been a big mistake.   It’s funny how a whole lot of not quite right can add up to a pretty nice piece. As I finished this piece this line from Psalms kept running through my head. אבן מאסו הבונים היתה לראשׁ פנה The stone despised by the builders has become the cornerstone  

This morning my youngest asked if he could stay home from school.  His down jacket, a hand me down, that he as been wearing for the past six winters has lost most of it’s feathers. A new one has been ordered and ought to arrive tomorrow.     I sent my boy out into this.   And if I didn’t feel guilty enough, these pictures don’t capture the sound of the wind howling . Now, it’s sleeting. I’m at the computer that is by the courtyard. Every few minutes I hear the crash of chunks of snow and ice as they plummet from high floors down to the pavement below. A bread is rising. There will be hot cocoa for all when they get home.

I had printed up silk to use as borders on the Royal Feast challah covers. But, I had a last moment change of heart. Looking at the challah covers, I thought they needed a healthy dose of red. So I did this instead. The one with a diamonds needs a bit more oomph. So I’m doing a bit of this.