I'm a crafty wee creature

[elettaria]

I'm just back from London, and will write about my adventures properly later, though it may be friends-locked. Meanwhile, here are photos of the finished holy tea towel challah cloth and the mug I made for D.

The colour representation is as inaccurate as ever, but it gives you some idea.

(the blanked out bit is originally his name)

If you missed the f-locked post in which I plotted this, he's the myopic mole (quotation from Arky Types by Maitland & Wandor, his myopia is appalling so it seemed appropriate) and I am the lobster (I got sunburnt at a barbecue in June and spent the next week complaining that I looked like a lobster). I painted it at the ceramics painting place in Marchmont and left him with a mystery sealed envelope to be taken in on Wednesday, by which time it would have been fired but I would be 400 miles south. He spent the days beforehand consumed with curiosity and came up with the wildest guesses as to where I was sending him, of which the strangest suggestion was a lesbian bar.









For those who missed my earlier posts on the challah cloth, it was a wedding present for my best friend's sister. A challah cloth is used to cover the challah, the plaited bread eaten at the Shabbat (Sabbath) evening meal on Friday nights. The fabric is a golden-corn colour linen, embroidered in cotton with some metallic threads and a few seed beads, and the stitching is mostly chain stitch with feather stitch for the border and couching for the names on the tree. It took about six weeks to make.

The first detail shows the names of the bride and groom on the tree, Adam on the left and Deborah on the right. (I never did figure out which one was Adam at the wedding, having not met him before and never seeing him closer than forty feet away!) The tree is a pomegranate tree, pomegranates being frequently used in Jewish symbolism, so you've got tree-of-life ideas and fertility symbols, both very suitable for a bridal challah cloth.

The second detail shows part of the border, which was a Biblical quotation, Song of Songs 2: 10-13.

10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

King James translation, which is probably hopelessly inaccurate but damn it, it's pretty. A later quotation from v16 of the same chapter, My beloved is mine, and I am his, is frequently inscribed on the inside of Jewish wedding rings, so again it's all suitably bridal.

The third detail shows half of the "Shabbat shalom" written in big letters beneath the tree. This means "good Sabbath" or "peaceful Sabbath", and this phrase or something similar usually ends up on challah cloths. I used a lot more metallic thread for these two words, one strand of gold (the same gold used for the names) with two strands of brown. I'm glad I didn't do solid metallic, this was enough of a bugger to stitch as it was.

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice, particularly prezzey who helped me enormously by doing the printed text for me to trace, elfbystarlight for her usual sewing advice (including a novel way of tracing designs by putting a bright lightbox into a shoebox and balancing a quilting ruler on top), and mirrorshard for more crafts help.

cross-posted to my journal, ritual_art and jewishwomen.

Comments

[misswyoming.livejournal.com]

You MADE that?! Wow, seriously impressed!

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

I think I went a bit mad for the last six weeks! I'm not doing that much intensive chain stitch again. The next project is a challah cloth for my Jewish community here (I don't really use them) which I will use as a sort of sampler for trying out different techniques. It'll just be various birds sprinkled around and a nice border with either "Shabbat Shalom" or "Shabbat v'Yom Tov" (the second includes festivals as well), it shouldn't take too long and it'll be fun. After that, I have promised my best friend a tallit (prayer shawl) which will be a big project, and I also plan to make the community a Torah mantle (which will be smaller but probably involve embroidering velvet AND using metallics, grrr).

[elfbystarlight.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! Triumphant and gorgeous.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

Wow! Such gorgeous embroidery. And such a cute mole!

[king-laugh.livejournal.com]

Hey, the cloth is absolutely gorgeous! You're so talented.
And yay for the mug! It turned ut very nice indeed!
Did he squee?

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

You bet! Thanks for helping me design it, pity I couldn't get all the book titles on, but the ones which did make it are being much appreciated.,

[king-laugh.livejournal.com]

Yay!!!

[sweetrush.livejournal.com]

The cloth is utterly gorgeous. I can read it! :D sopretty.

Friend meee! Can you speak Hebrew? I'd love someone to practice with online.

~שׁני

[sweetrush.livejournal.com]

Hm, how'd that dot get there?

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

I haven't a clue, I'm afraid my Hebrew is limited to stumbling along slowly in synagogue, and then only if it's services I've been attending regularly for years. My mother speaks fairly good Hebrew, although she can't read it.

It's being a bit of a hectic week, but I'll have a look at your journal soon, and kick me if I don't!

[sweetrush.livejournal.com]

There's nothing there, hehe. There is a link to my journal, but there won't be anything that interesting there, it's a what-I-did-today sort of blog for friends and family. I'm on LJ to read, not post, although I do every few months or so.

I was signing my name - Shani :)

[finnygan.livejournal.com]

That is beautifully done - the cloth, I mean. Though the mug is also very cool.

[doseybat.livejournal.com]

wow, pretty pretty pretty!

[garpu.livejournal.com]

That's gorgeous!

[eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com]

So beautiful! I'm afraid to ask how long it ended up taking you, in the end...

[catnip-junkie.livejournal.com]

Looks astonishingly brilliant finished, my dear.

Holy tea-towel, heh.

Also, loving the mug. I giggled when I saw it, and got some strange looks from the other people in the library. Which is where I am. Stoopid* internet.

Apologies for the deliberate misspelling. But, dammit, it is stoopid!