Folkloric Papercut Ketubah
A very long time ago, I met a child who wanted to take my papercutting class at KlezKamp. And then quite recently I received a call asking if I’d craft a ketubah for this same person, and could I please incorporate some papirshnit! What a joy! As usual, the bride and groom and I exchanged many emails and eventually we settled on a few of the many and varied elements of their lives to become the framework of their ketubah. Images representing the histories of their families over many continents! – and their love of color, detail, and Yiddish folklore are all incorporated here. The heart-shaped inner ring around the text is a repeating design based on metal bridge railing in St. Petersburg, where the groom was born and grew up (until I met him!) The golden peacock (di goldene pave) and the white goat (di vayse tsigele) are both recurring images in Yiddish literature and folklore. Other designs represent fiber art that references the bride’s background. Even the colorful swirls below the intricate papercut were arrived at after careful back and forth discussion and the magic of our devices carrying preferences at blitz-post speed! There are lots of electronic tools to create lovely lettering and papercraft, but there’s something about the craeft itself that elevates work such as this because the human hand is as close to the surface of the art as it can be. What a joy to see that exposure to a folkart as a child has stayed vibrant and meaningful for all these years. I am ever grateful....
Read MoreNYC Skyline-Plus Papercut Ketubah
A pandemic love story led to a move from NYC to Harrisburg, PA, and the bride and groom asked to have both cities incorporated into the design of their singular ketubah. As with all of my commissions, I requested a color palette, wording, and of course any abstract or specific likes, dislikes, and wishes. Armed with lots on the wish list, I got to work with grid paper (LOTS of that!!) and worked and reworked the imagery to create a chuppah, meaningful and beautiful poles, and a skyline packed with recognizable icons. The Pennsylvania state capitol building sits front and a little off center, proudly announcing that it, too, is part of the story! When creating such a papercut design, there are ways to ‘engineer’ the work to encourage the eye to see depth even if the images themselves lie quite flat. I cut away lots of paper to suggest shadows, thus allowing buildings (and a bridge, a statue, and an arch) to appear in front of or behind one another. Gluing a very wide open, lacy papercut to a painted background turned me into Macgyver for a while, as you can see here. The last thing I cut out was the open center and by then there was absolutely no way I could glue and lay down the entire piece perfectly aligned with the text, so I brought out the OED, a heavy mailing tube, and some removable tape and went at it with a tiny brush, unrolling as I went along. The background painting is created with gouache (an opaque water-based paint), mixed to the six colors chosen by the couple and applied in two layers, with texture added when wet. I then buffed the surface in the center to allow for the lettering of the text. ...
Read MoreBonfire at the Solstice Ketubah
Every ketubah tells a story and some of them have spectacular plots! This couple exchanged vows on the Winter Solstice during the worst of the pandemic, and they commissioned a ketubah for a celebratory wedding months later. To capture the magic of the time they married, they requested a bonfire bringing light into the darkness, the moon in the exact phase of the solstice, the two hawks which appeared at the moment they stood at Lake Erie to exchange vows (!!), and the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn at that same time. Both deeply connected to music, they chose to have a personal reference to a particularly meaningful song. One of the joys of creating a ketubah ‘from scratch’ means that symbols and images may be worked into the design where only the couple can recognize them. A...
Read MoreSimple Taupe Ketubah
For a wedding taking place in Mexico, the couple opted for a most simple lettered ketubah scaled to be packed and carried in a suitcase! My Hebrew lettering mentor, Ismar David, z”l, felt that the beauty of letters themselves were ‘enough of a feast’ and I agree. It’s rare that I have the opportunity to focus on just that. Tiny dots of gold leaf provide touches of...
Read MorePhilly Blue Ketubah
Very simple guidance here – blue color, papercut, a passage from Song of Songs, and images of beloved Philadelphia… And here it is. Oh, darn, I should have added a pretzel with...
Read MoreCollaborative Palm Beach Ketubah
A wedding planner for this couple arranged for an artist’s water color painting of the Breakers Hotel (the site of the wedding, of course) to be used with permission as a Save The Date card. Then the couple contacted me with a desire to use the same painting as the background for the ketubah, so back to the artist we went to secure permission. I worked with the existing design and lettered the text and signature lines onto a high quality print on watercolor...
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