Chuppah Panel in Progress with custom made fabric

Working on a chuppah panel for a friend’s wedding.  The fabric is a custom design that I made using SpoonFlower, which I wish I had more time to play with!  The design is a tree of life growing out of a heart.  It’s based on a design I saw on a stationer’s website, and then modified — of course!

In this case the only requirement was that there needed to be a duck.  Yes, a duck.  I was stumped for a while about the angle, but then I thought of two things — my love of Cattails and how they could easily be shaped to look like the letter shin, and that there is a bit of Torah about birds and nests.

Deuteronomy 22:6 says that you can’t take the eggs from a nest a mother bird is on or near (mitzvah of shiluach ha-kan) in the wild.   It’s one of the positive commandments towards compassion, so I call this one “Model of Compassion.”  The cattails form a subtle letter Shin.  In my design the mother bird isn’t sitting on her nest, but she is carefully watching over it.

The second design is a keyhole based on an antique escutcheon I found on Ebay.  I’m so much happier with how this one turned out.  The first one was just too bulky.  I really slimmed down the design here, almost too small for the scroll, which you can see peaking out over the top.  I didn’t cut out the inside of the keyhole this time.  I felt with the small and delicate size it would be better served without that.  Okay, and I was on a deadline and afraid of screwing it up.

Both are pretty tiny, with the Compassion Mezuzah being just slightly larger at approximately 1.5″x4″ and the Keyhole at approximately 1.25″ x 3.25″.  I say approximately because I forgot to measure them before I shipped them off to their owner!  Both are also stitched on my favorite linen with silk floss.  The Keyhole is a pretty heavy satin stitch, which I used a laying tool to get a nice dimensional texture.

Oh, and yes, I know one of the pictures has the mezuzah posed the in the wrong direction.  Do you know which one? 

Portable personal altar with Kohenet symbol and Ketzirah's "cipher"

I’ve been thinking about this idea for a while, and this is my first execution. It’s two 3″ hoops that have been put together with a tiny hinge to create a locket. In this case, it’s a personal portable altar for me. One side has the Kohenet symbol on it and the other side has my own personal totem/icon/symbol on it.

It’s stitched on simple muslin.  I transferred the images with Sulky pen, and inked the word “Kohenet,” which is Hebrew on the left with my fountain pen after.  I really like the effect instead of stitching it this time.  On the right, the pomegranate was transferred with red Sulky pen, and I used that along with this nifty dimensional specialty floss to give it some nice shading.  In the center of the pomegranate is the letter Kuf, which I’ve written a hundred times — but kind of goofed up here.  Kuf is the first letter of my Hebrew name, Ketzirah, and is also symbolic of a needle — which is totally appropriate too.  It’s also means monkey, which I dig!

Overall I’m pretty happy with the outcome. I learned a few things that I’ll be sure to improve on for the next go-round.

Available on Etsy.com

“Prayer for a Quiet Mind” is mediation on stillness, even in the midst of chaos.  The imagery was inspired by rock cairns I saw on the beaches of Key West, Florida. The day I was there, the waves were crashing and breaking all around the standing stones, but they still stood still and silent.

You can even see a video of the inspiration:

It is permanently framed in a wooden embroidery hoop that has been sanded,and left natural to evoke the sands of the beaches in Key West, Florida. It has a custom made hanger of metallic silver embroidery floss that matches. The piece is signed in ink with my cipher, a pomegranate and the Hebrew letter kuf.

Wood Sculpture in photo is by adrauglis.etsy.com

Here’s a slide show of piece in progress, from the sketches to the 3″ version for a swap, to the final piece.

Planning on a double sided piece.  One side has my sigil and the other the kohenet sigil.

The Kohenet symbol is stitched in vine stitch with this amazing silk floss.  The word “kohenet’ in the center was transfered with brown Sulky pen and then inked over with a blue fountain pen.

Ketzirah’s sigil, on the left, is a pomegranate with the Hebrew letter Kuf in the center, and a honey bee in motion around it.  The pomegranate is done with a specialty floss that has an outer net layer and inner cord. The top is done with straight stitch, and the body of the pomegranate is couched with the net layer stretched out to create the shading.  Under the red is also red Sulky transfer pen coloring.

The bee is done with modified long/short stitch in the body in DMC “flower floss,” and backstitched wings with DMC metallic black.  The bee’s motion trail is french knots in 3 strand DMC cotton.

Shame Offering 1 - Plastic bag embroidery floss on muslin

Size: 8″x10″
Fabric: Loose weave muslin died with wild-harvested blood root.
Floss: hand-spun plastic from up-cycled newspaper bags

This is the first real piece from my planned Sacrifice|Offering Project. I’m very excited about this first one, and the others currently in the queue.

This first offering series is intended as “prayer flags” to focus on the wastefulness of modern Western culture. The symbol is one that I designed to symbolize a sacrificial offering. I plan to use this image in all of the pieces in the Sacrifice|Offering Project.

The embroidery is done with floss I spun from the plastic bags my newspapers come in. Thankfully, there was a unique sponsor one day that had a bright purple bag that turned into this variegated lavender. I can get probably 20+ yards of floss from bag., and it stitches like a dream.

Once I have a few completed, I’ll be listing them for sale in my Etsy shop. Leave a comment below, if you’d like to be updated when they are available.  I’ve previously thought I’d be listing these for $36, but I’ve decided that the prayer flags will be $18.  I am still planning on immediately investing any money earned from the sale of these prayer flags on the micro-finance website Kiva.org.  Eventually, I’ll get the $18 — but it seems really right to “pay if forward” before I do.  It’s possible I might use some of it to fund amazing other artists on Kickstarter, but my plan is for these pieces to fund Kiva.

WIP: Shame Offering 1 by Ketzirah

I’ve written before about the Sacrifice|Offering project, and not too long ago I wrote about searching for the image I would use as the central symbol.  I had a moment of inspiration and found the image recently.  After some work, I created it in an illustration program is this is the first work-in-progress.  I’m calling this the “shame offering” series, because it really is such a shame how wasteful Western culture has become.  We take too much for granted and too much is disposable with no thought to what happens to the waste.  The floss for this series, I’m making from plastic bags that my daily newspaper comes in.  I cannot tell you how much floss I was able to spin from a single bag – yards and yards.  On the right you see a “spindle” with both purple and white floss, both from the same plastic bag.  The photo is blurry, but I’ll post better ones soon.

I’m planning on selling each of these for $36 and then immediately investing the money on the micro-finance website Kiva.org.  Eventually, I’ll get the $36 — but it seems really right to “pay if forward” before I do.  It’s possible I might use some of it to fund amazing other artists on Kickstarter, but my plan is for these pieces to fund Kiva.

WIP of “The Journey”.
16×20″ fiber art wall hanging

See more pictures of the Journey in progress.

Size: 5″ Diameter
Fabric: Linen
Floss: Pima cotton in “Stick & Stones” from Caron Collection Watercolours
Stitches: Chain stitch, stem stitch

“New Moon” is inspired by the cycles of the moon. When the first crescent appears the new month begins in Jewish tradition. This is the first piece of this theme I’ve done.

“New Moon” is permanently framed in a wooden embroidery hoop that has been sanded and then finished with traditional shellac. It has a custom made hanger of silk embroidery floss that matches the color of the frame. The piece is signed in ink with my cipher, a pomegranate and the Hebrew letter kuf.

Available in my Etsy shop.