12 Days of Christmas

This piece illustrates my interpretation of the song “The 12 Days of Christmas”.  I set myself several confines to work within – I could only use white, red,  green, and brown, with accents of 23k gold leaf.  The pictures were made with gouache painting, and I cut out and elevated some of the elements so the picture has depth.  Here is a close-up of the two turtledoves, perched on a heart of gold leaf.  Private collection.

Florentine Mizrach

This mizrach was made with gilt-edged quilled letters and woven strips of paper, against a watercolor background.  The outermat is covered with an Italian Florentine paper, and the inner mat is gold foil.

8 x 12, private collection

Borei Pri Hagafen

This translates as “creator of the fruit of the vine” and is part of the blessing said over wine.  The background was inspired by a book on Chinese lattice designs, by Daniel Sheets Dye.  Then the grapevine was draped around it.  Each grape is a separate roll of quilling paper, and each leaf is made of four different pieces.  The Hebrew letters are also quilled.

This was the first piece of Judaic quilling that I ever made, and it set the direction for all of my work since then.

Artist’s collection.

Gateway Mizrach

The verse in Psalm 113  “From the rising of the sun until its setting” is depicted here.  A mizrach hangs on the eastern wall, to indicate the direction of Jerusalem for those living in the west.

The design is made with quilling paper, and measures 8 x 10.  Private collection.

The Cornerstone
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“The stone rejected by the builder has become the chief cornerstone”-Psalm 118
The Hebrew letters are quilled and the English are done in gouache.  The inner mat was hand covered with marbleized paper in the “stones” pattern.