I like a bit of a challenge now and again. Here’s a community that wants to honour its rabbi by giving him a piece of artwork. Since the rabbi is well-beloved by the families with children, the Surprise Committee wanted to have the children participate in creating the artwork. Unfortunately, that doesn’t usually result in […]
Here’s a video featuring a very tiny totally kosher Torah scroll. The video’s more concerned with the accoutrements, a little aron kodesh and the usual silver ornaments for a Torah scroll, than with the scroll itself. They’re made by Bezalel School-trained artist Shuki Freiman, and they are breathtakingly beautiful, utterly and completely. Seeing them is […]
I like challenges. This challenge was to cook up illuminations for a Megillah being given as a bar mitzvah present. Bar mitzvahs are tricky – you want something appealing to a 13-year old, but it also needs to be something they won’t hate in twenty years’ time. The family sent me pictures of things – […]
This Purim, I was commissioned to write a megillah for the Abramson Center for Jewish Life, and not just create a megillah, but also a case for it to live in. The Center’s rabbi asked if I could make a design that drew on the Center’s existing artwork, and that’s what you see above. The […]
December 31, 2010 – 14:46
Wow, you people are the best. Following a post containing some uncertainty about the availability of wool tank tops and cotton tzitzit (the one for the stringent, the other for the allergic-to-wool), Rebecca links us to a wool tank top, which even has wider shoulder pieces rather than spaghetti straps, to please both the large-chested […]
December 29, 2010 – 13:00
I couldn’t get to Limmud this year because of the snow closing all the airports. This is one of the sessions I would have given. Wearing tzitzit under your clothes isn’t just something men do, but commercially-available tallitot katanot are definitely man-shaped. Bring a strappy top and come learn how to make a tallit katan […]
Tefillin Barbie is on Regretsy, people. Given that Regretsy exists to mock the living daylights out of dreadful things on Etsy…lucky old us. The comments are particularly fine, I must say. It’s good to be reminded of how the world thinks from time to time. For the record, I sell scalpels and blades because I […]
I may have spent the evening putting artwork onto mugs. Click mug images to buy at Zazzle. My cup runneth over: This one’s particularly fine, I think, for hot drinks on chilly Shabbat afternoons at seudah shelishit, when people are singing “kosi revaya” anyway. Also good for people like me who tend to overfill their […]
First of all, I fish out my Full-Colour Sourcebook of Historic Ornaments. I have a shelf of books I use for inspiration, and this is one that never fails. Highly recommended. Turn to the Mughal India pages, because I’m in that sort of mood and I’ve got that sort of budget. I’ve been wanting to […]
September 14, 2010 – 10:37
It’s the time of year again when we use a LOT of yahrzeit candles. What to do with the pots afterwards? This is a post about how to jazz up yahrzeit candle jars using glass paints, wrapping paper, and ingenuity. Save up your yahrzeit candles. After yom tov, boil a kettle of water, and pour […]
