SKETCHBOOK: Hamsa Designs

Cut & Paste Challah Cover

This is a fun and easy project to make with your kids. Even if you’re already in possession of several challah covers (including the ones brought home from pre-school and/or hebrew school), it’s always fun to mix it up - why not add this one to the rotation? You can download this tutorial as well as the templates here.

SUPPLIES

scissors

Elmer’s glue

white chalk

1 piece of burlap 16”x20”

navy blue felt 11”x17”

pattern

HOW-TO

1. Remove strands from each side of burlap until you have your desired fringe length.

2. Apply thin line of glue at base of fringe around entire perimeter (to prevent fraying). Allow glue to dry.

3. Cut out paper pattern pieces and lay them out to fit on blue felt.

4. Trace around each pattern with white chalk and cut out shapes.

5. Position felt shapes on burlap using challah cover picture as guide.

6. Apply glue around perimeter of backside of each shape and press onto burlap. Glue should soak through to the backside of the burlap for best adhesion. Allow glue to dry.

7. Wasn’t that easy? Now you just need a challah to cover… Consider making extra to give as Chanukah gifts!

Easy to print 8.5”x11” templates (above).

Image placement guide (below).

For those interested in taking this project a step further, you can add detail to the design using a needle and thread as shown below. Download this version of the tutorial here.

INSPIRATION: Mah Jong Tiles

Something I love about Mah Jong (even more than the game itself) - the designs on the tiles, especially the flowers.

Floral Ink Challah Cover

Pics of my latest challah cover design, printed on velvet!

Challah Cover Design

This is a watercolor painting that I’m thinking about turning into a challah cover design on Spoonflower. Nothing symbolic going on here, just wanted a joyful, natural feeling.

A LOOK BACK: Rosh Hashanah Linocut

This illustration was published years back in the Baltimore Jewish Times to accompany an article entitled "High Holiday Youth Services".  I didn't have children of my own at the time, but now that I do, I realize that my portrayal of youth services was not quite accurate - these kids look absorbed, attentive, happy to be there - quite the opposite of how most kids appear under similar circumstances.

I myself have always had a hard time sitting for three hours through high holiday services (let alone my kids and especially my husband). This is why as a family we've only attended two or three of these services in the past 15 years. Unlike most jews affiliated with a synagogue who tend to flock towards the synagogue during high holidays, we prefer to stay away from the crowds in favor of some family time and a hike in the woods. We're more likely to sit through services on an uneventful Saturday morning, if at all!

However you choose to celebrate the New Year, I wish you and your families a Chag Sameach!

Challah Cover Workshop

To make these challah covers we used burlap, white felt, colored chalk, scissors and glue. I cut the burlap ahead of time. Workshop participants removed strands along the perimeter to make a fringe as long or as short as desired. A line of glue stopped it from fraying any more. Designs were sketched onto the white felt, cut out, and glued into place. Colored chalk remnants blown away. Done!

Easy, inexpensive, rustic, unique. My daughter and I made the ones below and alternate with others we’ve made to make each Shabbat meal special….

A (Personal) Hanukkah Tradition: Teaching Dreidel in the Classroom

I have three kids, ages 10-15, and they all went to Jewish pre-school. Back then, when December rolled around, it was all about Hanukkah. Songs, food, crafts and dreidel - all good.

When they entered kindergarten in public school, however, they were one of a small handful of Jewish kids in the classroom. So when December rolled around, they experienced all their classmates' excitement about Christmas, along with some puzzled looks about Hanukkah. This produced a bit of Santa envy.

That's when I e-mailed the teacher and asked if I could come in to teach the kids to play dreidel. I've done this every year for each child until they were out of elementary school (my youngest is in 4th so I only have two years left!). Every time I asked, the teacher was happy to give me at least a half hour of class time.

This post is for anybody who'd like to start this hanukkah tradition for their kids. I put together this little guide to make it easy for you. My kids have always looked forward to my coming in to teach dreidel, and after experiencing it once, so did their classmates! 

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TIPS FOR TEACHING DREIDEL IN THE CLASSROOM

- Schedule with teacher in advance - a 30 minute time slot is ideal.

- I like to start off by telling the story of Hanukkah. The website My Jewish Learning has one that's an ideal length called "What You Need to Know About the Hanukkah Story". You can find it here.

- Buy supplies. For each child you'll need:

SUPPLIES

• DREIDELS: I bought a 30 pack of wooden ones here.

• DIXIE CUP: I like to count out the beans in advance, and a little cup is a handy way to store them and hand them out to the kids.

• BEANS: I use dried black or kidney beans.

• PRINT OUT: (See below) Kids can refer to this as they play. Here's one I made up that has 3 per page, so you just need to print it out and cut into thirds. Download it here.

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- Bag of gelt (optional). Because of allergies, your school might not want you to hand out food (my daughter's school doesn't). In this case, what I do is leave the bags of gelt in a box on my front porch. In class, I give the kids my address and let them know that if they'd like a bag of gelt they can ask their mom or dad to drive past my house and pick one up. I found a box of 24 that specify NO NUTS here.

Here's some directions on how to play Dreidel, excerpted from WikiHow:

Dreidel is a traditional game of chance, and one of the most well-known symbols of Hanukkah. The dreidel is a four-sided top with a different Hebrew letter on each side. The game dates back at least to the time when the Greek King Antiochus IV (175 BCE) had outlawed Jewish worship. Jews who gathered to study the Torah would play dreidel to fool soldiers into thinking they were just gambling. Now, it's usually played to see who can win the most gelt (chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil). With a dreidel and some tokens, you can take part in this holiday tradition, too. 

Get a dreidel. The dreidel you will get will depend on where you live. Outside of Israel, the four letters on the sides of the dreidel are Nun, Gimmel, Hay, and Shin,which stand for "A Great Miracle Happened There," referring to the miracle of the oil. In Israel, where the miracle happened, the dreidel has the letters Nun, Gimmel, Hay, and Pey, which means "A Great Miracle Happened Here

1. Gather friends. You can play with as few as two, but the more the merrier! Distribute tokens evenly among all of the players. The tokens can be any little thing: pennies, nuts, raisins, matchsticks, etc. A lot of people use gelt.

2. Ante up. Before each spin, players put one token in the middle of the circle to create "the pot." Every time the pot is emptied, or there's only one token left, every player should put a token in the pot.

3. Take turns spinning the dreidel. When it's your turn, spin the dreidel once. The letter which comes up once it stops spinning determines whether you win, lose, or draw. According to the letter appearing, the player should perform the following action:

   • Shin ("shtel" or "put in" in Yiddish) - Put one more token in the pot.

   • Nun ("nisht"or "nothing" (in Yiddish) - Do nothing.

   • Gimmel ("gantz"or "everything" in Yiddish) - Take all tokens from the pot.

   • Hay ("halb"or "half" in Yiddish) - Take half of all tokens lying in the pot. In case of an odd number of tokens, round up.

   • If you run out of tokens, you are either "out," or you may ask another player for a loan.

4. Pass the dreidel on to the next player.

5. Keep playing until someone wins by collecting all the tokens.

Lastly, if you'd like to hand out a dreidel coloring sheet for the kids to take home, here's one I made last year - you can download it here.

Good luck - have fun - and Happy Hanukkah!!!

Ink Drawings for Challah Cover

This is a really fun way to design... using india ink and a paintbrush, I filled three large sheets of paper with Shabbat motifs along with florals and plant life. Afterwards, I picked the icons I liked best, and scanned them. On my computer, I arranged the separate elements into one unified design. I also played around with reversing the type to white and putting it on a blue shape. Here are the paintings... 

And here they are arranged into a challah cover design....

I sent the file to Spoonflower to be digitally printed onto fabric. I chose two different fabrics to print onto to see which one I like better - Kona Cotton Ultra and Celosia Velvet. The velvet won, hands down. It's got a pretty sheen, a hefty weight, and the color is brighter and more saturated.  Here they are side by side, cotton (left) and velvet (right).

Here are some more views of the velvet print....

Now I just need to cut the excess fabric from around the edges and and trim to finish it off!

Cut Paper Challah Cover

My latest challah cover design is inspired by an artwork I saw in a book entitled "Traditional Jewish Papercuts" by Joseph and Yehudit Shadur. It's a beautiful book, with highly informative text and descriptions. The papercut my illustration is based off of was a type of amulet called a "childbed letter". It was originally meant to hang on the nursery wall to thwart "the evil intents of the witch Lilith who carries off newborn infants"...  Where there were areas of text on the papercut, I substituted a sun, and in the rectangular shape flanked by lions, I inserted the word "Shabbat" in Hebrew.

Below you can see that I've experimented with three color combinations: red and yellow, purple and orange (with purple ball fringe), and the traditional blue and white. Do you have a preference?

In future variations, I may add facial features to the animals... Initially I thought that people might want to embroider these details in on their own to add their own personal touch, but either way, having them there can at least serve as a guide...

'Jerusalem' at the Met

If you don't have a chance to check out this exhibit at the Met in Manhattan before it closes on January 8th, I'll share with you some of my faves. Briefly, the show focuses on a broad range of artworks representing a large variety of faiths, created in Jerusalem between the years 1000-1400. I LOVE illuminated manuscripts, so that's about all you'll see here, but the Met's website has a collection of images from the show if you'd like to see more of an overview.

New Challah Covers in Shop

Lately I've been wanting to experiment with different sewing styles and techniques - appliqué, patchwork, fabric stamping, etc... Even though I'm just playing around, I like the idea of actually making a finished piece. The challah cover is the perfect size for this, so it's become my focus. Here are three that I've just finished and added to my shop...

The first has a felt dove appliquéd onto a denim background with hand embroidered text that reads "Shabbat Shalom" both in English and in Hebrew. The backside is a dark blue velvet. It's machine quilted with echo lines.

The second is made with denim, twill, chambray, quilting cotton and muslin. It's also hand embroidered with "Shabbat Shalom", but only in English. The backside is an off-white cotton, and there's no batting or quilting, so it's thinner than the previous cover.

The third challah cover is quilted like the first, and has a patchwork design like the second, but is unique in that it's made with some of my hand-stamped fabrics. There's denim, twill and cotton fabrics with a white twill backside.

Next up will most likely be needle felting.... stay tuned!

Happy Sukkot!

Today is the first day of Sukkot, one of my favorite Jewish holidays. It's sort of like Thanksgiving in that it celebrates the earth's bounty, but it's also a commemoration of the 40 year period the Jewish people spent wandering in the desert after escaping their lives of slavery in Egypt.

The Hebrew word sukkot is the plural of sukkah, which means "booth" or "tabernacle". The sukkah is a temporary structure with four walls and a roof loosely covered with branches so that the stars are still visible. During the harvest season, farmers would build and live in these structures out in the fields, and during their exodus from Egypt, Jews would live in dwellings such as these.

For several years, I used to build a sukkah of our own in the backyard. My family and I would eat our meals inside, and one year we even slept in it overnight. I stopped building it in recent years because it was a HUGE job, but for the years we did have it, it was a wonderful experience. 

Besides the sukkah structure itself, the holiday includes a ritual which involves shaking the lulav and etrog in all directions (signifying that G-d is everywhere). The etrog is a citrus fruit similar to a lemon, and the lulav is three different plant species all bound together, and named for the largest of the three. Combined, the lulav and etrog are four species, all of which are mentioned in the Torah. There are several explanations as to why these particular species were chosen for the ritual, but my favorite one likens each of the species to a part of the human body. With the etrog as the heart, the willow as the lips, the lulav (or palm) as the spine, and the myrtle as the eyes, it's said that through the use of these body parts we can serve G-d by helping others. 

I don't have a sukkah this year, but if I did, I might use my illustration shown here as one of the decorations. If you'd like to download this image to hang in your sukkah, feel free, you can get it here. Hang as is, or color it in. One suggestion that I have is to laminate it with one of the thicker weight lamination films at your local copy store. This will protect it in the rain, keep it hanging flat, and give you a stiff border through which you can punch some holes to hang it. If you remember, please send me a pic of your sukkah, would love to see it. Chag Sameach!

Passover Buttercrunch Matzah Recipe, Illustrated

I've been wanting to illustrate a recipe, and now that Passover is here I thought I'd work on the most delicious, addictive Jewish holiday dessert ever - Chocolate Covered Buttercrunch Matzah!

In addition to exploring recipe illustration, this is my (a little too late) attempt to add a personal touch to the holidays. I had planned on actually MAKING the dessert to bring to my sister's Seder, along with print-outs of the recipe for the kids to color. With time running short, I still need to hard-boil and peel two dozen eggs, make the Charoset, and bag up the chametz. Looks like I may not be getting to this little project after all... but there's always next year. 

Another idea I'd had was to print this out onto card stock, reduced, and use it as a gift tag to accompany a tin full of the buttercrunch matzah. I'd give it as a little spring-time gift to Hebrew school teachers or anyone else I've been feeling grateful for.

If you'd like to use this image for a personal project this Passover, feel free to print it out. I'd love to see what you do with it, so send pics if you can.

Happy Passover!

Challah Cover Tutorial

Here's a quick and easy project to make your own Challah Cover. The perfect wedding gift, or keep it for yourself to help make all your Shabbat celebrations beautiful and special. The illustrated fabric shown in this tutorial can be purchased in my Spoonflower shop for about $10-11 dollars. Once at the shop, all you need to do is:

1. Choose your fabric. I'd recommend any of the 100% cotton ones. I use either the Basic Cotton Ultra or the Kona Cotton. Both of these fabric widths fit the Shabbat Shalom design with minimum fabric waste.

2. Choose a size and amount. You'll need 1 fat quarter. 

The fabric will be delivered to your home in a couple weeks, then just follow the simple steps below... 

Have fun!

STEP 1

Wash the fabric.

STEP 2

Iron.

STEP 3

Find a piece of plain white cotton fabric or anything you'd like to use as the underside of your challah cover. Pin right sides together and sew along dotted line. Leave a small opening about 5" wide.

STEP 4

Trim excess fabric .25" away from seam.

STEP 5

Trim corners to reduce bulk.

STEP 6

Turn right side out. Use something long and thin (like the eraser side of a pencil) to push out the corners.

STEP 7

To close opening, tuck ends of fabric under .25" and pin. Hand sew closed.

Optional, for an extra special touch, use silver metallic thread to outline illustrations and along the edges of the border. Your challah cover is now complete!  If you'd like to share a picture of your finished project I'd love to see it. On instagram I'm @vickykatzman or you can e-mail me at vicky@vickykatzman.com. I hope you use your handmade creation for many years to come. Shabbat Shalom!

Friday Night Dinners

When I was growing up, my family and I celebrated Shabbat almost every week. My memories of the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of our Friday night dinners together have always stayed with me. 

I remember the roasted chicken and steaming veges waiting on the stovetop while we welcomed in Shabbat. My mom's high singing voice blessing the candles, my dad's serious voice reciting the Kiddush (the blessing over the wine), the warm glow of the flames, the sweet syrupy sips of Manishevitz. 

The challah would sit patiently under cover while the candles and wine got their turn. You would think it was hidden to stop kids like myself from grabbing at it, or to keep it moist, but I was told it was “to spare it’s feelings about being last to be blessed”. Maybe that’s why each of these ritual objects seemed to have a life of their own. Not only did they play an important role at Shabbat dinner, they had feelings that could be hurt!

After taking the cover off of the challah, either me or one of my sisters would sing the Motzei (the blessing over the challah). Dad would cut thick slices (but then halve them), lightly salt and then pass them around the table till we all had a chunk of our own. Mmmmm.

If we had finished eating our dinner we could be excused from the table, and were called back again for benching (the blessing after the meal). As I sung along, I liked to run my finger really fast through the candle flames and marvel at how I didn’t get burned. We’d finish with an energetic, table thumping version of “Shabbat”, a song with only three words: shabbat, shalom and hey!

Friday night dinners made Shabbat into something to look forward to. The rituals (and short explanations) were enough for me to feel the specialness of Shabbat. But when I went off to college, I'd only spend the occasional Friday evening at Hillel, and when I lived in NYC during my 20's and 30's, I barely thought twice about celebrating Shabbat.

It was when I had my own kids, however, that my memories of celebrating Shabbat with my family resurfaced, and made me want  to share the same wonderful experience with them.

Today, roasted chicken and steaming veges wait on the stove while I (or one of my children) light the candles. My family and I celebrate Shabbat just as I did when I was growing up. When my kids have grown and leave home for college, they may or may not attend Hillel, and in their post-college years they may or may not even think about Shabbat. But it's my hope that their memories of our Friday night dinners together will stay with them always, and perhaps resurface as they did for me, making them want to celebrate Shabbat with their own kids.

Holiday Gift Bag

This quick tutorial accompanies the Peace, Love, Chanukah cut & sew I designed for the Spoonflower holiday gift bag contest. I used my cut-paper design which I originally used as a Chanukah card illustration. Enjoy!

Supplies:

• Peace, Love, Chanukah cut & sew pattern.

• Scissors

• Ribbon or String

• Safety pin

• Needle & thread

How To:

1. Cut out the pattern pieces along the dotted lines.

2. Place right sides together. From top of design, measure down 1" and place pins at the 1" mark on both sides. Continue pinning along the side and bottom edges.

step 4

step 7

3. Starting at the 1" mark, backstitch then continue to sew around the perimeter using a 1/4" seam allowance until reaching the 1" mark on the other side. Backstitch to secure.

4. Trim tips of the bottom corners at an angle.

5. Press seam allowances open.

6. Turn the unfinished top edge under 1/4", iron and sew.

step 7

7. Turn top edge under again, this time 3/4", iron and pin. Starting at a side seam, sew around the top of the bag, keeping seam 1/8" from bottom edge of fold. Backstitch at the start and the finish.

8. Turn bag right sides out and iron seams flat.

9. Measure anywhere from 20" - 40" of ribbon or string depending on how long you'd like the finished handle to be. Pin the safety pin through one end of the ribbon, then thread safety pin through and around top seam of bag. Pull ribbon through until both ends align, then make a knot near seam opening.

All done...time to fill it with your gift!

Just for fun, changed out the ribbon to this slightly fancier one with a silver trim. This bag is wide enough for two wine bottles!

Included in the Peace, Love, Chanukah cut & sew available through Spoonflower, follow the same instructions as listed above to make this one. Disregarding the fact that I need to practice my sewing skills.... this little bag is the perfect size for  gelt. Happy Chanukah!

Glen Rock Jewish Center Community Mural

I am currently collaborating with two women to create a 9'x12' mural for our synagogue. The idea was conceived by the Rabbi Tow of the Glen Rock Jewish Center many months ago. He'd had a vision of a large brick wall on the stairwell being transformed into a colorful painting to enliven the space. It would depict the history of the Jewish people from the beginning of time up until the present day, specifically, our Jewish community. Together with the Rabbi's wife - Rabbi Rachel Schwartz, and Elizabeth Fish (who recently started her own business - Murals by Elizabeth), we joined together and embarked on a journey to make this vision a reality.

A group effort between the three of us, below are the initial drawings, concepts and sketches...