Januart 4, 2010

Finished my son Zvika and his bride Chaviva's ketubah. He found them an apartment to live in and now just needs to find a job. He has put in the effort, now someone just has to give him a chance.

This year went fast

It has been an entire year since I wrote in this blog. My oldest son is engaged to a lovely girl and I am making their ketubah. My husband and I took a trip to Israel. The first time in 26 years. For two week, I had trouble getting my bearings and that was just in Jerusalem. The country has grown so much. Building everywhere. But what most impressed us was the 3 hour free parking parking lot at the Mamilla Mall. To build it they had to go down 5 stories in rock. The parking deck is clean bright and spacious. Never seen anything like it. The tunnels at the kotel were very interesting. The best part of the whole trips was seeing friends that we have not seen in more than 26 years.

Brachot Achronot

I drew a filigree as the design. Behind the filigree I painted solid colors blending into each other around the design. There are 15 spaces for either small pictures or words. I am trying to decide whether to draw pictures of the 7 minim (wheat, barley, olives, dates, grapes, pomegranates and figs) twice and fill the last spot with some snacks, label the pictures or just callig the 7 minim and then name various snacks. I want to paint the filigree in silver, but I am out of silver gouache. I ordered some from John Neal, Bookkseller on Dec 19, but it has not arrived yet.

Brachot Achronot

I am now making a Brachot Achronot (blessings for after eating snacks of the 7 species, baked goods and grape products) which I hope to print and sell. I first roughed out the lettering on graph paper. I then cut and pasted the lettering on another piece of graph paper until I am satisfied with the way it looks. I decided to use a more elaborate design around it. I'm thinking of having the 7 species in the design. I drew the design on tracing paper.

I am using a heavy watercolor paper from my stash. I drew guide lines and wrote in the brachot with black suni ink. I then transferred the design to the paper. Next I used black ink to outline the design and then started painting using gouache.

I'm using Pergamenata Paper and Yasutomo Sumi matte black ink with a #4 Mitchell RoundHand Nib.

Text is all written and has been proof read by my son. Now for the decoration. The design will be very simple. A border of gold vines enclosed in gold. Simple but elegant.

The ketubah is all done and can be seen as the latest entry on the Ketubah Gallery page. Now to my next project: a decorated Brachot Achronot.

Katriel Ketubah

I am creating a ketubah for Merissa and Benjamin as a wedding gift. The wedding will be bs"d January 11, 2009 in Atlanta, Ga.

Merissa wants a smallish document; a text about 9" x 12" with a simple border of brown, yellow and a splash of red.

The first step, after choosing a creme colored watercolor paper, is the laying out of the text. The smallest nib that I can write with, see well and still have crisp hairlines is a #4 Mitchell. Using quadrille paper to rough out the first lines, I find that I can write each entire name on a line of 9", so this can be the width of the text. Leaving about 4 inches for the top border, I mark the middle of the width of the paper. I then mark 4.5 inches on each side and draw vertical lines to mark the sides that will enclose the text. Next using a mm ruler, I measure and then draw the guidelines. I am now ready to start writing out the ketubah.