CUSTOM TALLIT, R'FUAH SHLEIMAH HEALING, & JOURNEY SCARVES
Kavanah/intention
Order a custom designed tallit Pricing starts at $800
I see a prayer shawl as an invitation to step out of the chatter of daily life and into a meditative space.To create your portable house of prayer, we work together to find the words, colors , and forms that call to you to open your inner spirit. Designs and prayers are drawn with gold-flaked resist onto 14" x 72" luscious white sand-washed crepe de chine silk. Elegant silk charmeuse, which has a pearlescent glow, is used for the atarah and corners. Each separate piece is painted with fiber-reactive dyes, then steamed for hours to set the dyes. After washing, cutting, and sewing the elements into place, wool tztzit strings from Israel are tied in a traditional gematria of knots and wraps that numerically translate as "God is One."
PRICING STARTS AT $800
It is advisable to order far in advance of a designated celebration, if possible.
Create your Journey Scarf
Journey scarves are personalized to clients' stories and needs. They are worn as memories, as meditations, celebrations, and as reminders that there is always beauty to be found in this world.
Some include prayers or intentions-- chesed, kaddish, emet in Hebrew or in any language-- amidst symbolic images such as landscapes and spirit animals.
Pricing for large scarves starts at $400
Small $180
Give a r'fuah shleimah healing prayer scarf
Give a r'fuah shleimah healing prayer scarf
History~ A tallit client came to me when her friend was going through breast cancer treatment and had lost her hair-- Could I make a silk head scarf with a healing prayer?
In this scarf, the first of many for all sorts of tender times, are the Hebrew words from the Misheberach prayer: r'fuah shleimah-- complete healing.
Just as you wouldn't send yourself a get well card, give a r'fuah scarf as a gift. I will drop everything I'm doing to make one for you.
30" squares or 8" x 54" ~ $170
larger sizes available
Custom designed, hand lettered and painted Judaica
Hiddur mitzvah
When my Ukrainian grandfather was 18 years old, his two brothers, studying to be Torah scribes, were murdered by Cossacks. He came to America in 1905 and fathered 3 sons. Designing prayer shawls, chuppahs, Torah covers, and healing scarves is a way to say Kaddish for family members each time I hand letter a prayer.
Choosing a prayer
Part of the process, if you choose to do so, is working together to find the words that call to you to open your inner spirit
בָּרוּך אַתָּה ה’ אֱ-להֵינוּ מֶלֶך הָעוֹלָם אַשֶׁר קִדְשָנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָנוּ לְהִתעַטֵף בְּצִיצִת
Blessed are you, Lord our G‑d, King of the universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us to enwrap ourselves with tzitzit. This is the traditional prayer said when donning a tallit, and usually found on the atarah.
Most of my clients choose a different prayer. We study to find the words that invite each person into a place of meditation.
Isaiah 35:1 The wilderness and the parched land will be glad; the desert shall rejoice and bloom.
This choice for the atarah was painted during a phenomenal blossoming of plants in the Southwestern desert. The client, who has a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, described her perfect day as hiking amidst such splendor.
What would be your perfect day? What would invite you to wear your tallit, your portable house of prayer?
tallit/tallis, Healing Prayers, Torah cover, chuppah
Psalm 96:1 ~ O sing unto Adonai a new song, sing all the earth!
Hudson River Valley scene painted on a Hebrew prayer shawl for a musical Bat Mitzvah girl whose name means dawn. The guitar neck becomes a tree of life and a poppy emanating light signifies her grandfather Papi who helped her with her Torah portion.
Poppies and Wheat tallit-- commissioned to celebrate a lifelong friendship between two women in their 80s.
"May Adonai lift up his face unto you and give you peace."
CHAI and LAV
The challenge: pink, hearts, flowers, and "live, laugh, love."
The atarah is Genesis 31:49
May Adonai keep watch between you and me, when we are absent one from another. I offered this as a suggestion to the mother who commmisioned this for one of her daughters because, she told me, "I would like her to feel that I am wrapping my arms around her when she wears her prayer shawl."
Psalm104:24 How manifold are Thy works, O the Lord! In wisdom hast Thou made them all; the earth is full of Thy creatures. Designed for a budding marine biologist who expressly asked for dolphins and orcas. These animals do not live harmoniously, yet here, they happily cavort, each on separate parts of an ocean. I painted an agelfish in the center, because everyone needs an angel at their back.
If not now, when? asked Hillel on Autumn's #tallit with aspen and maple leaves representing NM and Canadian roots.
Desert Bloom Tallit with a Judah HaLevi poem beginning on the atarah and continuing across the sides of the tallit.
My heart cries out to you, Please draw near to me.
The moment I reach out for you,
I find you reaching in for me.
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As a deer longs for water, so do I long for Thee, Elohim. Psalm 42:2
Tallit for a mussar teacher
Isaiah 58:11~ And thou shall be like a watered garden , and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
Sensing she would die within a year, an extraordinary woman who many times turned down death's invitation, commissioned this legacy gift for her sister. The recipient chose a quail mother and two youngsters to represent herself and two sons. On the corners, Hebrew family names.
The first and, so far, only request for the Shema on this tallit that includes a hardy dandelion that can grow in the most difficult circumstances.
Oceania
Blessed are You Adonai, King of the Universe, that such as these are in Your world. A girl from a family of high achievers learned to overcome her learning challenges. Her places of joy and awe are underwater with ocean creatures often thought of as unusual, sometimes, scary or unattractive.
Tzedek tallit
Most interested in social justice, the owner finds his peace and joy swimming in the ocean.
Eye of the heron
Black-crowned Night Heron, the landscape around the lake reflected in his eyes, has stores within stories. My photograph, awarded First Place in the Plants & Animals category, is on display at Sahuarita Town Hall, Arizona.
#SAACA