A crafty New Year
Filed under: Art, Blogging, design, Food, History and Culture, Holidays, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life
I’m thinking that the impending holiday has to be about more than the fact that my husband is leaving for two weeks to work as a baal tefillah at a synagogue in Toronto — read, vacation money, new furniture funds and maybe some put into savings — the food that has to be cooked for three days of chag and the mountain of dishes that will be washed. (Although there are some good recipes in there.)
And so, I’ve been inspired by a gan tradition that I had to fulfill, which was that we had to make cards to be given to our boys this week. It happens in schools and ganim throughout the country before Rosh Hashanah, but this was a first for me. So I first thought about easy ways to fulfill it; scribble something on a paper, print out a coloring page and use that. But then I warmed to the idea and came across all these momblogs that are just filled with crafty ideas, some cool, some kitchy. I finally settled on this one, from ChallahCrumbs, Thumbprint Bees for their RH cards, using just black construction paper, yellow fingerpaint and a white crayon. The idea was really adorable, just that my yellow paint ended up drying invisibly on the black paper and I had to use yellow crayons to outline the bees. No matter, it’s the thought that counts, right?
Even thought the thumbprint bees weren’t a total success, we had a great time today with Playdoh and a new Fun Factory, so much so that I’m thinking of embarking on another project tomorrow, Wine Cork Stamp Rosh Hashanah cards from creativejewishmom, in which you use wine corks and a red stamppad to create really sweet apple stencil cards, napkins, gift tags, what have you.
I can’t promise what will come out of all that, but I’m willing to give it a try. Finally, I’ll also be creating a non-dairy frosting for very sweet apple-shaped cupcakes. I already made these a week ago, using a lime cupcake base — gotta use all the limes from our tree — and a readymade frosting with red food coloring. But, have to think non-dairy for some big meat meals, so will probably be using this frosting recipe. Still, I can tell you that the cupcakes are a hit and there’s something very satisfying about creating such a finished looking product.
How’s them apples?
Nostalgia Sunday – Hamsa Hamsa Hamsa
Filed under: Art, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, Religion, Travel
A new exhibition, Angels & Demons, Jewish Magic Through The Ages, opened at the end of last week at the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem (BLMJ). The exhibition examines the origins and development of magical practices in Judaism from the First Temple period to the present day by focusing on beliefs, customs and particularly, the use of magic objects in daily Jewish life. For although Judaism forbids the invocation of black magic there are no proscriptions, (at least according to the exhibition guide), against white magic, “i.e. defense against the dark arts, the forces of evil and the damage they cause.”
This is good news — tfoo, tfoo, tfoo — given the Jewish genetic predisposition to obsessive compulsiveness in which spitting on the ground three times isn’t OCD, it’s a necessary reaction to any bad news, (or good news if you’re trying to fool the evil eye into looking the other way).
In Israel, this sort of white magic is part of daily life. Having a spate of bad luck? Everyone knows where you can find a local reader of coffee grounds, tea leaves or an amulet-writing guy who, for a price, will take the hex off. And of course, for everyday evil eye warding off, the hamsa five fingered amulet has you covered.
The hamsa (the name means “five” in Arabic) is a regional symbol that is as old as… well… as old as the region. According to Wikipedia, “it is a palm-shaped amulet popular throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The hamsa is often incorporated in jewelery and wall hangings, as a defense against the evil eye. It is believed to originate in ancient practices associated with the Phoenicians of Carthage.” These practices include protecting the home and there are doorways, ancient and modern, throughout the Middle East, that are decorated with blue-paint handprints.
The Phoenicians associated the hand with the goddess Tanit and there is a continued link between the hand and powerful females. In Islam, the hamsa is sometimes called “the hand of Fatima” (for Fatima Zahra, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, and in the Jews of North Africa, who adopted the symbol, would “sometimes call it the hand of Miriam, referencing the sister of the biblical Moses and Aaron.”
The Israeli immigrant society crucible that melds together folk beliefs from all every part of the Diaspora, coupled with modern manufacturing methods, has brought the hamsa’s popularity to new heights.
Go to Tel Aviv’s Nahalat Binyamin crafts fair on a Tuesday or Friday morning and you’ll find hamsas fashioned from every medium: silver, gold, brass, stained glass, wood, decoupaged pressboard, paper mache, plastic, clay, plastic clay (Fimo), fabric… an endless wellspring of good luck charms at the ready to protect you and your home. Speaking of which, Home Center’s been selling a tablecloth with hamsas woven into the fabric. There are hamsa-shaped cookie cutters. Israel’s queen of retro, Michal Negrin, has produced a line in her own unique style. And of course, hamsa keychains abound. I especially like the ones that decorate a 5 shekel-sized disk for your supermarket shopping cart.
It’s a bit strange that this symbol — which has little to do with Judasim but everything to do with the Middle East — has become so ubiquitous. But, on the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with a little extra help in the luck department. It’s worth checking out the rest of the talismans, amulets and charms at the Angels & Demons exhibition. And if you can’t get to Jerusalem in time to see the exhibit first-hand, BLMJ has launched the first Israeli museum iPhone app – look up Jewish Magic through the Ages at the iTunes store.
Nostalgia Sunday – Stitching in the Seventies
Filed under: Art, design, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture
Israelis are a crafty lot – and not in the way you think I mean. Israelis – particularly women – have always liked their handicrafts. These days, every neighborhood boasts a hobby store. Decoupage seems to be the most popular craft of the moment, putting pretty flowered napkins at a premium and shooting gilt paint prices through the roof.
But in every generation there will be needlepoint. Back in the Seventies, gobelin or tapestry needlework, was all the rage. There was far less television to watch and so an afternoon coffee could be quietly — or noisily — passed with good women friends, all of whom came equipped with a plastic bag filled with thick needles, French embroidery thread and canvas printed with the most horrifically sentimental romantic prints, also imported from France.
During our summer visits to see family, my Israeli mother refused to fall prey to the fad though she did help me as I (inspired by those books about young American frontier girls who walked 5 miles to school each day and then embroidered samplers by candlelight) made my own childhood attempts at needlework. We would sit around her cousin’s Rivka’s living room as Doda Dvora, Doda Tzila and cousin Rivkale all stitched away.
Doda Tzila — who was by far the most prolific — bestowed upon our family a version of the lady seen above left, in a heavy gold frame. I absolutely loved it and was quite disappointed to discover that it was a very common and popular print that hung in many an Israeli household, as were the fruit bowl and the cute kittens gobelins that we later received.
There was definitely an Eastern European aspect to the whole needlework thing as Israelis of Russian and Polish origin looked to all things French as the height of culture, while others hearkened back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire (it turns out that Hungary is also a big producer of horrifically sentimental romantic gobelin canvases). Despite the fact that everyone’s flats were furnished in Danish modern-style furniture, you never knew when a tapestry-covered chair or ottoman was suddenly going to turn up.
But it’s very likely that the local Bedouin and Palestinian embroidery was also a big influence. For instance, my Israeli mother was definitely an embroidery groupie, and spent hours and days scouring the Old City shuk for just the right black velvet embroidered jacket and long black dress. She also patronized the Bethlehem Arab Women’s Union (BAWU), which has been running an embroidery cooperative since 1968. More about BAWU and 16 other local artisan projects can be found at the Sunbula fair trade organization website.
There are some young Israeli designers who also resonate to the nostalgia vibe, such as bag designer Shiri Hyman of boutique Fabrica in Tel Aviv’s trendy Gan HaHashmal, whose gobelin-inspired pieces are sold in London boutiques as well as close to home.
Foto Friday – A Walk Down Nachalat Binyamin
Filed under: Art, Blogging, design, Foto Friday, General, Life, Travel
Every Tuesday and Friday, there’s a crafts fair on Tel Aviv’s Nachalat Binyamin Street.
There’s no end to the coverage about it, because it is a very good event that has managed to maintain high standards of quality for over a decade and a half — no mean feat, as so many other so-called crafts fairs start out in promising fashion, then sink quickly into a mire of cheap crap from India and China. But the TA municipality keeps close tabs the Nachalat Binyamin artisans and artists, many of whom staff their own booths.
Most visitors pay more attention to the products than the sellers, as is only natural when shopping. And that’s where the photographer’s eye comes in.
Photographer Jessica D. Korman, a recent new immigrant to Israel, took a stroll down Nachalat Binyamin and — aside from snapping shots of the wares for Tchochkes.com, where she is a regular contributor, she also took a look at what goes on around the booths.
Korman, who studied interior design, says she looks for architectural elements wherever she goes, “to present a different view of an object or event.”
“I like photographing everyday scenes,” Korman says, “always looking for a different angle or perspective to the mundane or even the ‘ugly’ side of things.”
A former picture editor for publications such as Scholastic, Star Magazine and Woman’s World Magazine, Korman now works as a Visual Communications Consultant in Jerusalem. “What I love about [photo editing] is that it is the marriage of written content with images. The proper choice of image will enable one’s work to have the greatest impact. Besides, what better job is there than getting to look at pictures all day?”
There’s inspiration everywhere. More of Korman’s work is available on her website, The F Stops Here.
Nostalgia Sunday – Yemenite Embroidery
Filed under: Art, design, General, History and Culture, Nostalgia Sunday, Profiles
Back in the early Sixties, most kids’ mothers wore frilly cocktail aprons to entertain. Not my Israeli mother. Hers looked like this.
And her miniskirts and pantsuits looked like this.
My mother, a singer of international folksongs, had a great collection of gowns. Many were created at Esther Zeitz, a Jerusalem house of fashion that employed a team of Yemenite seamstresses that sat, day in and day out, stitching threads of silver and gold onto splendid garments. Who needed jewels when you had something like this bedecking your neck?
Wearing Yemenite embroidery was very cool among Israeli women who came of age during the 1940s and 50s. This dress was made for my mother when she was a teenager during the 1948 War of Independence.
In the Sixties, after the 1967 war and the reunification of Jerusalem, she combed the Old City looking for a velvet jacket with Bedouin embroidery to wear over a black velvet gown. She found one, too.
In the early Seventies, she scored some Bedouin-style embroidered garments from the Arab Women’s Union of Bethlehem, an embroidery cooperative.
But my favorites will always be the Esther Zeitz outfits. As I recall it, Zeitz – whom I remember as a large woman with swollen arms – closed down in the Eighties when she became too ill to manage. It would be nice to find out more about what happened to the workshop, which was located at the junction of Ben Yehuda and Bezalel streets – I think it is a hairdressers’ today.
My sisters and I wore many of these garments during the Go-Go Eighties. Today, however, they are fragile – the polyester fabric is forever but not the cotton threads that hold down the metallic threads. We are not sure what will happen to this collection, and so decided to document the clothes that, for us, are part of a happy memory.
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