Groundhog Day

What is happening to the summer? I thought after I finished teaching in July that I could spend time creating and relaxing.  Ha! Although I have made it to two movies.  Two more than I went to all of last year! I saw The Book Club (eh!) and Mama Mia, Here We Go Again (fun!).  I was definitely surprised that you could reserve your seat and that seat was a recliner.

In between these two movies I have been working on new mosaic patterns that are larger and more complex and finishing the silk dupioni Torah Covers for Germany.  (Click on this link if you want to read about the origin of this commission.)

These are used from the start of the Jewish High Holidays through the holiday of the harvest, Sukkot.
Here's a close up of the applique panels.

 They sit on top of the torah scrolls

and they are constructed like a wrap around skirt with satin inside so they slide on and off easily

 inside is the dedication

When I think about the covers that I created finding their home in a synagogue in Germany, it gives me goose bumps.
The crazy thing is that now I have to do this all over again for a synagogue in Easton, Maryland.It does feel like the movie, Groundhog Day.

Quadruplets!

The Jewish High Holidays(HH) mark the end of summer for me.  They will be here soon and I will be sad that the summer will disappear. Three years ago, I made two HH covers for my synagogue, Temple Sholom, in Broomall.

This year I was asked to make 2 more companion covers for the other 2 Torahs  that we have in our possession. The clergy loved the pomegranate quilting so much that they wanted that included in the new covers.  We decided to continue with the panels in the bottom center and chose 2 more holiday themes.

The new ones were the Torah

And for the second one Ithey chose the Etrog and Lulav, symbolic of the holiday, Sukkot.

I started making the Torah covers as a wrap around quilt.  The Rabbi and I came up with this idea as a collaboration.

with a wooden top

The tops for these covers were handcrafted by a fellow congregant named Richard Wagner.  He did a beautiful job and carved the edges:

The lip has Velcro and so does the cover.  It makes it easy on and easy off.  This facilitates storage and cleaning, since these covers are only used for less than a month.

It will be a joy to see these in use this year.  I feel like a Mother Hen when I sit among the other congregants and watch the clergy open the ark and take out the Torah with "my" cover on it.

Torah Cover Project

The Torah Cover Project

 Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the Jewish New Year and commemorates the anniversary of the creation of the world.  Yom Kippur begins Tuesday night. These are the 2 holiest days of the Jewish calendar. During this time the covers for the torahs are changed.  These covers or mantles are traditionally plain (ish)- white/ivory/cream colored. As with many Jewish traditions, there are many different explanations for this.

 

My project for the summer was to make 2 covers for my synagogue,

Temple Sholom in Broomall, PA. 

This is what they look like.

 

They are relatively identical except for the front panels. 

One depicts a shofar and the other the "Book of Life".  The shofar is a ram's horn that is blown and sounds like a trumpet, several times during the High Holidays.  On Rosh Hashanah, God is said to inscribe the fate of every person for the upcoming year in the Book of Life.

 

Silk dupioni was used to make the covers. 

 Each top section was quilted with pomegranates. 

Then I quilted the background and appliqued the motifs for each cover.

 

 

 

The covers were then constructed like a quilt with a final dimension of 47" Wx 27"H.

 

 

 

They are then attached to the top of the cover or shoulder like a wrap around skirt

 with the flap in the back..

 

 

In the past the cover was attached to the shoulder 

encasing the wood inbetween layers of fabric and attaching the "quilt".

 

This time I tried  a very unique approach.   I used tops that were custom made of cherry for me by a very skilled local woodworker.

 

 

Then I used Velcro (c)to attach the cover to the wooden top.

 

These covers are only used for about 3 weeks and then stored the rest of the year.  The Velcro method of attachment makes storage and cleaning so much easier.

 

I made fabric slipcovers to store the wooden tops

 

 

and provided Temple Sholom with an acid free archival box for storage.

 

As we say in Hebrew, L'Shana Tova -

May you have a sweet and happy New Year.

 

 

Wednesday's Wanderings #31 - Torah Covers

I have been spending the week working on a commission for my local synagogue, Temple Sholom.  It's for 2 torah covers for the Jewish High Holidays, that start with Rosh Hashanah and end with Yom Kippur.  Traditionally these white, plainish covers are put on the torahs for these most sacred days. 

 In our synagogue they adorn the torahs for about 3 weeks.  They are put away for the rest of the year.

I often have a little chuckle because without fail this is the scenario:

1.A few weeks before the covers are needed, the synagogue search begins to find them, especially if someone new is involved in trying to find where those covers were put at the end of the High Holidays the year before.

2.Then the question is  how to clean them.  (Remember they are white and are handled more than usual  by many different people during the services.)

3. It would be so nice to have new covers because most of them have been around a long time.   They are not a high priority in terms of expenditures.  Maybe next year.

4.  The covers are put away and forgotten.

5.  See step #1.

So I am excited and honored to be a part of this tradition.  I sat with the clergy and we designed the covers together.  Even though they are predominately white, they do not have to be plain.  They loved my pomegranate themed torah cover and wanted pomegranates to be visible in the background.

 

This week I designed, auditioned and practiced the quilting for the background of the design. It's interesting that the discussion these past few blog posts have been about contrast.  My goal for the background quilting was for it to be subtle, but I still wanted it to be visible.

The fabric is dupioni silk, an elegant and rich fabric.  The thread is a variegated gold rayon.

Here is my work in progress:

My initial sketch

I used Solvy, a water soluble transparent film as my quilting guide.  I traced my drawing onto the solvy with a thin tip marker that was similar in color to my thread. The film tears off pretty easily. Silk dupioni does not like water.  It loses its sheen and lovely texture if it gets wet.  I used the clear film and the similarly colored marker so if  any of the film remained behind, it wouldn't be readily visible.

I layered my backing, low loft batting, silk and Solvey and secured them with a few pins.

And free motion quilted it.  It's a little hard to see the transparent film.

The pomegranate

Finished sample, aka Wednesday Wandering

 

Jewish Ritual Textile Art

I have been thinking about all of the items that can be created from fabric to celebrate Judaism's rituals.  I am surprised at how many items there are.  So far, this is my list:

• Ark curtain (see last post)
• Torah cover
• Tallit
• Kippah or yarmulke
• Challah cover
• Chuppah

Here are photos of 3 torah covers that I have made.  They are made from silk dupioni and each of them tells a story.  The beauty of using silk is that it glistens under the lights illuminating the ark.  

The torah covers or mantles enrobe the scrolls covered with the hand scribed hebrew words on parchment paper.  What gives me goosebumps is that every year on the same day of the Jewish calendar, no matter where in the world you are located, we are all reading the same portion of the torah in the same language of Hebrew.    (As an aside, the Jewish calendar is a lunisolar calendar.  The current year is 5771 and it starts with Rosh Hashanah which takes place in September or October.)

Torah Cover Project - The End

The Torah coves have been delivered.  A 2 hour drive to Easton, MD with husband and dog.  Easton is a quaint town on the Eastern shore of Maryland.  An artsy town with lots of little shops and restaurants.  I googled pet friendly restaurants and there were many to choose from.  We had a great lunch outdoors at Mason's.  One of us had to have crab cakes.  And they were yummy.

The soon to be retired Torah covers

We headed over to Temple B'Nai Israel after lunch.  I presented the 3 covers to Rabbi Peter Hyman and the temple member who made this all possible, Vicki Zuckerman.  And the reason that I do commissions like these happened next - the thrill in their eyes and their words upon  seeing the finished product.  They loved them and thought they looked so much better in person.  Everyone had their own favorite.

The new Torah covers created by me

I'll be headed back to Easton in October for their formal dedication.  It will be a wonderful evening - getting to see the congregation's  response, meeting the couple that provided the financial support for the project and seeing the Torah covers in their place of honor.

I have to say that it is an honor for me to have my work in such a holy place for many years to come.

Torah Cover Project - Introduction

I have been commissioned by Temple B'Nai Israel  to create 3 torah covers for their synagogue.  They are located on the Eastern shore of Maryland in the quaint historic town of Easton.  Easton has a lovely downtown filled with many quaint shops and restaurants.  The temple was founded in the 1951.  The current torah mantles are from that era and were donated by members from that time.  Although they were beautifully hand made from velvet with metallic bullion stitches and sequins, it was felt that it is time to update them. 
                                                                               

The rabbi at Temple B'Nai Israel, Rabbi Peter Hyman, was familiar with my torah covers from prior commissions.  He contacted me about working with his current congregation.  And thus this torah cover project has become.  This synagogue is lucky enough to have 3 torahs, and so my job was to design 3 covers that would compliment each other and still project an image of tradition, modernism and Judaism.  A member of the congregation, Vicki Zuckerman, along with the rabbi was integral in guiding the project.  They enlisted the help of another congregant to help make the final decision from the 6 designs I presented.

I have been creating Judaic textiles since 1999, starting with designing and selling quilt patterns as OyVey! Quilt Designs, http://cheryllynchquilts.com/portfolio_judaic.htm.  Since then I have also done commissions for torah covers and other judaic commemorative textiles.  My designs for Chanukah quilts have been published in many of the nationally known quilting magazines.

I am thrilled to be a part of this rejuvenation project.  Even though I am a fiber artist working alone in my studio, I would like to share my experience and progress.  I will be devoting the bulk of my blogging to creating these torah covers, starting with a quick tour of my studio.

My studio is located on the main floor of my house.  While raising children I found that it was important to have access to my work but to also be available.  This arrangement afforded me flexibility.

My palette is my fabric.  Quilters call it a stash.  It is an accumulation of purchases over many years.  I keep it sorted by color, but find it very difficult to keep tidy - as you can see.

I have 3 sewing machines and my brand of choice is Bernina.  This might not mean anything to non-sewers, but means a lot to those of us that sew.  These machines are work horses and very rarely let me down.

Thread is another source of color.   This is my thread collection above my desk. I use cotton, polyester, rayon and metallic thread, depending on the project.  Most times the thread is a solid color, but sometimes I use a variegated thread.  Thread is used for putting the pieces together, for appliqueing the pieces and for quilting the layers together.  Sometimes it is used for embellishing.

 A very important place in my studio is my design wall.  It runs the entire length of one wall.  Covered in grey felt, I can pin fabrics to the styrofoam underneath.   I use it to help me visualize my progress and make design decisions.

I also use it to pin notes to myself!



So I have used this post to introduce myself to those of you who are not familiar with me and to tell you a little bit about my working environment.  Please feel free to post comments and I will try and answer any questions you may have.

My next post will reveal the unanimously chosen design for the first torah cover.