The Making of a Ketubah

I love watching an art piece develop. In truth I always have an idea of how the piece will turn out, but the end result is always a little different than I expected. It's a real creative process.  Normally I don't like anyone seeing my artwork before it's completely finished but I decided to give you, my readers, an inside peek of the process of designing a ketubah from scratch.

It starts with a sketch:

I draw with pencil a detailed sketch of the design.  Once the sketch is mainly completed I start filling it in with ink, pencil and watercolor, my usual choices of medium.  The couple who ordered this ketubah were getting married at the New York Botanical Gardens and they wanted a lot of detail of flowers and that blue should be the predominate color.  We decided to add in images of doves and olive branches as symbols of peace and harmony and pomegranates as a symbol of prosperity.  In addition, their wedding was right before Rosh Hashana so the pomegranates worked well with the time of year. (Also I love pomegranates so whenever I can add them into pieces I do!)

I finished adding in all the color for the flowers, now it's time to paint the background blue and fill in the corners.

If you notice I had an olive tree originally sketched into one of the corners, but I didn't like the way it looked.  A closer up of the olive branch would be more visually appealing and balance out the close-up of the pomegranates. (Art is all about balance, and if you don't believe me read Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, one of my favorite novels of all time!)  I also decided to add an extra border of floral papercut around the perimeter to give it that little extra wow factor!  And as you can see I've started spacing out the ketubah text.  I always save that for last since it's my least favorite part of designing a ketubah!

The finished product!

And of course no artwork is complete without the artist's signature.

It's All in the Family!

While creating the piece The Seven Species, I bumped into a woman in the supermarket who grew up around the corner from me in my hometown in NJ.  "I've been meaning to call you" she said.  I want to order a custom art piece for the Rabbi of my shul.  A couple of weeks ago was my son's Bar Mitzvah.  Everything was in order, we had 75 family members coming to us for Shabbos.  All our meals would be catered and eaten in the shul.  However, God had a different plan.  Thursday night there was a terrible rainstorm and the basement of the shul where we were supposed to have all our meals was flooded.  The Rabbi of the shul who has a huge living room graciously offered to host the meals at their home, and we want to give them a unique gift to show our appreciation for their helping us out.  How quickly could you have a piece ready?"

I couldn't help but laugh, the piece I was currently working on, The Seven Species was being made for this woman's brother-in-law who lives in Israel as a surprise gift for his 40th birthday.  I was told by the wife to keep the artwork a secret.  In my own family I was always known as the one who couldn't keep secrets.  I was about to shirk myself of that title.  I told my friend she would have to wait a couple of weeks because I was currently working on a piece for someone else, but I would let her know when it's complete.  "Ok, great" she said, "Oh and I want to keep the artwork a surprise from the Rabbi and his wife." She then told me their names and I realized I teach at the same school as the Rabbi's wife...more secrets to keep!

When The Seven Species were finished, I contacted my friend they told me they wanted a simple papercut with the words, "You can draw water with joy, from the springs of salvation."  The quote originally from Sefer Yeshayahu is recited during havdalah at the conclusion of Shabbos.  It was a perfect verse to use since it has to do with water (remember the flood that caused the whole scenario), Sabbath and God as the source of all Blessing.  The only thing they couldn't decide on was the color scheme.  My friend devised a plan that I could see the Rabbi's house when noone was home and choose the appropriate color for the piece.  This was going beyond keeping a secret, we're talking about breaking and entering here.  Anyway it was all accomplished, secrets were kept, I managed to get a peek inside their house without setting off any alarms and the result is the papercut above and below.  Hope you enjoyed my rambling story!

The Seven Species

I should write an ode to my neglected blog.  It's been way too long since I've paid any attention to you.  Perhaps now that it's summer and I have more free time I will be able to post more regularly.

Here is a piece I finished about two months ago  It is a papercut of Israel's seven species with the text of the Separation of Terumah and Tithes written in calligraphy on the inside.  I received a phone call from a woman in Jerusalem ( just read a book by A.B. Yehoshua with that exact title, but I digress...) who grew up around the corner from me in NJ, and has been living in Israel for the past 17 years.  Her husband enjoys working on his garden in their backyard in Jerusalem and taking the appropriate terumah from the fruits and vegetables that he grows.  To celebrate his upcoming fortieth birthday she wanted to know if I could write out the text of Separating the Terumah and Tithes and include in the piece a papercut of the seven species.  What a fun project!
 

I looked at many, many images of the seven species and sketched them out in pencil, then painted over the pencil in gold and cut out with an x-acto knife the negative space. 

Here we have some olives (excuse the shadow...a photographer I am not!)

some sheaves of wheat...

dates and figs.... 

          and pomegranates and barley

I was really happy with the way it came out.  I especially love how the gold glimmers in the light.  My husband liked this piece so much he asked if I could make it for our home.  My response? Buy an apartment in Jerusalem and plant a garden in the backyard and you'll get one too!

Fifty Years and Counting!

This family tree was created in honor of a couple who recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.  Being that I've only been married 4 years I find that number quite impressive!
What was also impressive was the amount of effort, care, and concern the youngest child, who happens to be an old childhood friend, put in to making this gift happen.  It's not easy trying to get four other older siblings to agree on colors and design and every other detail that goes into creating a piece of artwork!  But they did it, and hopefully everyone will be pleased with the result.

The tree is made from canson paper, cut with a knife and mounted on a 20 x 24 in. canvas.  The canvas is painted with acrylic paint.

  
The writing is done in Indian ink and the edges are highlighted in gold paint.

 
Here's to another 50!  Mazal tov!

Bat- Mitzvah Gift

Who doesn't like to see their name up in lights?  Or at least a papercut of their name hung in their home!  This piece was created as a Bat-Mitzvah gift.  However it can also be a beautiful gift for a new baby.  Or you can make it into a Bar-Mitzvah gift and perhaps put a pasuk from the Bar-Mitzvah boy's parsha or haftorah around the cut out of his name.   

I'm not sure why I always take pictures from this angle.  I think it adds some drama, what do you think?

Also from this angle, you can really see the curling of the paper.  The piece is a square (12 in. x 12 in.) and is canson paper, cut with a knife and matted on hand made tie-dyed blue and purple paper.  Oh, and the Bat-Mitzvah girl loved it!

Levy Ketubah

No Ketubah could be as colorful as the personality of the bride for whom it was created but I did try to make the border pretty vibrant.
The bride has been my close friend for the past eleven years, and it was such a privilege to be able to design her ketubah. Together we spent a couple of summers traveling through Australia and Europe, teaching some Torah along the way (mainly because of me) and sharing some pretty crazy experiences (mainly because of her).

 The ketubah is an updated version of the Lisbon Ketubah, with blues replacing the earth tones of the original Lisbon manuscript. The filagree that surrounds the ketubah is cut with a knife to really make it pop and the border is inspired by illuminations from Rambam's Mishneh Torah (Lisbon,1472).  The bride and groom chose meaningful verses from Shir HaShirim to frame the Ketubah.

Colored pencil, Indian ink and acrylic. (24 x 30 in.)

Paroches-Ark Curtain

Last summer relatives of mine asked if I would be willing to a design a paroches for their shul in Lakewood, New Jersey.  The paroches would be dedicated in the memory of their mother Sima who had recently passed away.  Cousin Sima lived in Mexico and I grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey.  I didn't have many memories of her but I could vividly picture an embroidered tablecloth that was a gift from Sima to my grandmother and was used on Sabbaths and holidays.  The tablecloth was white with thick bright blue, yellow and red threads hand-sewn into the cloth in an intricate floral pattern.   I had never designed a paroches and was excited at the prospect and even more so I loved the idea that I would be creating a piece of embroidery in memory of Cousin Sima.

 

This is a picture of the design of the paroches.  My relatives who ordered the piece wanted the standard "Tree of Life"  in the center but with an explosion of color surrounding it.  It was a different experience creating an artwork, while taking into account how the piece would be translated as an embroidered work.  I loved the challenge and was excited with the results.  Below is a picture of the completed paroches.  I'm still waiting for a more professional picture of it, but until I get one, this will give you an idea of how it came out.