Teddie, Shoshkie and Naomi

One of my recent commissions came from a customer who wanted a special birthday card for her niece, Rebecca. The brief was simple. The card was to feature her dog, Teddie, and include a large "27" somewhere in the design. My customer sent me a couple of photos of Teddie, and I got to work.

The card was fun to create and was very well received. My customer was keen to share that her niece adored the card!

Back in February, Mister Handmade in Israel and I went to the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation in the port city of Jaffa to hear the artist Zeev Engelmayer speak about his artistic work and activism. Working under the creative persona "Shoshke", Engelmayer is known in Israel for his ongoing illustrated "Daily Postcard" project. Through these drawings, he responds to current events, politics, and social issues with honesty and insight. I have followed his postcards closely since the outbreak of the war and was keen to hear what he had to say about them.

Since the 7th of October, when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel's Gaza border communities, killing thousands, committing atrocities, and abducting hundreds, Shoshke has been drawing his interpretation of the day's distressing events on a regular basis. Although he has now turned his attention to larger projects, during the war he would sit each morning at a small kitchen table in his Tel Aviv apartment overlooking the Florentin neighbourhood and create his "Daily Postcards", depicting hostages, soldiers, and mourners. He portrayed the Bibas family - mum Shiri, dad Yarden, and red-haired preschoolers Ariel and baby Kfir - as well as 80-year-old Yaffa Adar, a released hostage, riding home in a heart-festooned golf cart with ballerinas alongside her. In other works, Mary Poppins magically brings hostages home beneath floating parasols, while in another, child hostages travel on a rainbow from Gaza to Tel Aviv, above. He also responded to the daily reports of soldiers killed in Gaza and, more recently, in Lebanon.
Shoshke's colourful A4-sized "Daily Postcards" capture the horror, fear, and sorrow of the war, but they also offer a different way of engaging with the day's unfolding reality. Through humour, emotion, and illustration, he approached painful subject matter in a way that can bring a sense of comfort. The public responded immediately, sending messages and requests for him to tell the stories of their loved ones. We also asked whether he would consider portraying Gadi's story, though that now seems unlikely.
I was pleased to be able to purchase one of Shoshke's prints, and now have it framed and ready to hang on the wall as soon as I find the right spot for it.

The Hebrew text reads: "Today all the hostages are returning home"

Since losing Gadi, neither Mister Handmade in Israel nor I have really been in the mood to listen to music. However, we were recently given tickets for a tribute performance to Naomi Shemer at the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv, and we decided to give it a go.
Naomi Shemer was an iconic Israeli songwriter, composer, and performer who, in her own words, wrote "a thousand songs and one more". The tribute evening was curated by her son, the acclaimed musician Ariel Horowitz. The show was a musical journey through her well-known Hebrew songs, interwoven with personal stories about her life and working process. It featured songs she wrote and composed herself, poems by other writers she chose to set to music, and songs she translated. These include Lu Yehi (Let It Be), Al Kol Eleh (For All These Things), and the Six-Day War anthem Yerushalayim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem of Gold), among others.
The Israeli actress, comedian and television presenter Rivka Michaeli, Naomi Shemer's close friend, appeared on stage alongside Tamar Giladi, Shemer's daughter-in-law and Ariel Horowitz's wife, and Lali Shemer, her daughter. Each of them shared small anecdotes from Shemer's life. Together, they offered a personal and intimate glimpse behind the scenes of the woman often regarded as the First Lady of Hebrew Song.
It was a moving evening that celebrated Shemer's extraordinary body of work, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Although she passed away more than twenty years ago, in 2004, her songs continue to live on.

Photo by Boris Carmi, courtesy of the Meitar Collection, Pritzker Family National Photography Collection, National Library of Israel

A Tribute to Naomi Shemer at the Cameri Theatre - singer Adi Cohen performs “Jerusalem of Gold”

* This post has been shared on Happiness is Homemade, Mosaic Monday

Baking, Nursing, and a Taste of Australia

To celebrate Polly turning 60 on 7th May, her husband commissioned a special card. He shared that his wife's interests include cooking, especially baking, as well as nursing, and asked that I incorporate the Clalit Health Services logo, where she works, on the card. Clalit Health Services is Israel's largest health maintenance organisation (HMO). He also requested images of Australia, where the couple recently enjoyed a three-week holiday.

I decided to show bespectacled Polly baking some heart-shaped cookies. She is wearing her white coat, with the Clalit kupa (health organisation) logo on it, and blue disposable medical gloves. Next to her I added a cooking pot and a wooden spoon, and on her other side, a little bottle of medicine, some capsules and a plaster. I also included photos of Sydney Opera House and Uluru, or Ayers Rock, two places I know that the couple visited on their Australia trip. Finally, I added a large 60 to mark Polly's age, and underneath it, the emblem of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), which features a sword wrapped in an olive branch inside a Star of David. Polly does some part-time work for the IDF.

Her husband was very happy to see the card. "It is perfect, and you are the best!" he said.

* This post has been shared on Happiness is Homemade, Mosaic Monday, Handmade Monday, Monday Morning Blog Club, Busy Monday, Talking About It Tuesdays, Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop, Thursday Favorite Things and BFF Open House.

Hansen House

Hansen House (Beit Hansen) is a historic building in the Talbiya neighborhood of Jerusalem. It was built as an asylum to care of sufferers of Hansen's disease, also known as leprosy. The large building was designed by German architect Conrad Schick. Construction began in 1874, when the cornerstone of the "Jesus-Hilfe" (With Jesus' Help) asylum was laid. The name is still visible on the façade, above.

Today, the compound hosts a rotating gallery of art exhibitions and is the headquarters of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design's master's program. Every year, Hansen House hosts Design Week in collaboration with artists and creators from around Israel. The Ofaimme Farm's Coffee House for Sustainable Agriculture was opened in the historic doctor's house. All the food is from an organic farm in the Negev desert. Hadir - The Bar at Hansen, which was opened in 2018, is located in what was once a goat pen, whose dairy products were used to supply the residents of the leper hospital.

The permanent exhibition, 'Behind the Wall', tells the story of the building and its residents.

It seems that Hansen's disease was pretty rife in these parts in the 19th century, which was not at all to the liking of a German aristocrat by the name of Baroness Augusta von Kefenbrinck Ascheraden, who visited Jerusalem with her husband in 1865. Disturbed by the sight of lepers begging at the Old City gates, the baroness raised funds from her wealthy European contacts. With support from the Joint German-Anglican Protestant Church in Jerusalem and the Moravian Church, she helped purchase a plot of land in Mamilla (a neighbourhood of Jerusalem that was established in the late 19th century outside the Old City). However, the sick of Jerusalem were wary of moving to the new asylum for fear of losing the income they scratched together by begging. That was compounded by the fact that the majority of the sufferers were Muslim, and they were concerned they would be forcibly converted to Christianity if they moved into the new refuge. A second, less hospitable and even less successful facility was established by the Ottoman authorities in the district of Bir Ayub in 1875.

Despite all this, the asylum in Mamilla eventually proved to be too small and in 1874 the Moravian Church purchased a vineyard in Talbiya from the Greek Orthodox Church and the construction of a new asylum began. It was completed in 1887 and was designed to take in up to 60 patients and members of staff. The patients were from Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities throughout the country.

In 1950 the asylum was purchased by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) but continued to serve as a leprosy treatment centre through 2000. The Israeli Ministry of Health took over the running of the asylum, renaming it the Hansen Government Hospital (after the physician Gerhard Hansen, who identified the Leprosy bacteria). With the development of an effective cure for leprosy, more patients were rehabilitated and discharged, resulting in the closure of the hospitalization unit.

In 1986, due to the building's significant historical and architectural value, it was declared a preserved building. The facility operated as a day clinic before finally closing down in 2009, when the Israeli government decided to hand over the building to the Jerusalem Municipality, for the purpose of converting it into an interdisciplinary cultural centre. In 2011, the Jerusalem Development Authority (JDA) started the Hansen House preservation project. By the end of 2013, the impressive historical building was reopened to the public as a design, media and technology cultural centre, where academic research, development, education, and public activities could take place.

Fortunately, adding 21st-century hi-tech content did not erase the rich history that had taken place in the building since the 1880s. Under the protection of the JDA, modern floor tiles were removed, to reveal the original, far more aesthetic flooring, as were partitions that the Health Ministry had installed. The beautiful gardens surrounding the building have been conserved and maintained with the rest of the compound. 

One of four water cisterns that formed part of Hansen House’s original infrastructure.

The Tea House, pictured above, is a shell-shaped structure with an intricate mosaic floor that was relocated to the northern courtyard of Hansen House in early 2021. It originally stood beside the pool of Villa Sherover, a historic residence built in 1954 for the affluent Meir Halevy Sherover and his wife Gita in Jerusalem's prestigious Talbiya neighbourhood. Their home was once a vibrant centre for cultural and diplomatic gatherings. Today, the Tea House has been reimagined as a sound gallery, featuring contemporary music and sound-based art.

* This post has been shared on Weekly Wonders, Mosaic Monday, Monday Morning Blog Club, Through My Lens, Inspire Me Monday, Talking About It Tuesdays, Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop and Funtastic Friday.

A Special Handmade Card to Celebrate an Engagement

A long-time customer got in touch to ask if I was available to create a card for her. She was looking for something special for a young couple who had recently become engaged. She then sent me a photo of the couple which, from past experience, I knew she hoped I would recreate in paper.

The photo my customer sent showed the couple in a garden, beside a table adorned with flowers. The bride-to-be is proudly showing off her engagement ring. I recreated the scene, adding just a hint of the table and flowers to frame the couple.

I hope they enjoyed seeing themselves brought to life in paper!

Here is another engagement card I made for the same customer, inspired by a proposal photo, together with this one.

* This post has been shared on Happiness is Homemade, Mosaic Monday, Handmade Monday, Monday Morning Blog Club, Busy Monday, Inspire Me Monday, Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop, Creative Muster and Funtastic Friday.

Three Flags

Sweet Eilon was turning 11 and shared with his mum exactly what he wanted on his birthday card. He apparently loves flags and can recognise them from all over the world, so he came up with a list of places whose flags he wanted featured on his card. Mum also asked me to include a globe on the card, and of course a big number 11 to mark Eilon's age.

The three flags Eilon wanted on his card were the national flags of the Seychelles, Kiribati, and Saint Lucia. I've shown Eilon waving the flag of Saint Lucia, with its blue background and bold black, white, and gold triangle design. Behind him, a globe is topped with the flags of the Seychelles and Kiribati.
The national flag of the Seychelles, the third since the country gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1976, is bright and distinctive. It features five bold diagonal bands fanning out from the bottom left corner.
Kiribati is a remote island nation in the central Pacific Ocean. Its flag has a red top with a gold frigatebird flying over a rising sun, and a blue bottom with three white wavy stripes representing the ocean.
Eilon's mum was delighted to see the card:
"Thank you, Lisa, for the beautiful card! Eilon will be so happy. He will love it, I’m sure!"

* This post has been shared on Happiness is Homemade, Mosaic Monday, Sweet Tea & Friends Link Up, Handmade Monday, Busy Monday, Monday Morning Blog Club, Inspire Me Monday, Talking About It Tuesdays, Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop, Creative Muster, Funtastic Friday and The Crazy Little Love Birds Link Party.

Givat Humra

Givat Humra is the name of a softly sloping hill located just a short distance from Kibbutz Palmachim, a coastal community south of Tel Aviv near Rishon LeZion. The hill is famous for its carpets of Iris atropurpurea (coastal iris), which bloom from February to early March. One Sunday morning in February, Mister Handmade in Israel and I took a walk there. The sky was blue, and we walked among the rich, velvety purple flowers, enjoying the colour across the hillside.

The coastal iris is called Irus ha-Argaman in Hebrew and Saoosan al-Sahel in Arabic. Argaman is Hebrew for "purple". The Latin botanical name atropurpurea means dark purple. Native to Israel's coastal plain, it is one of the country's most striking and beautiful flowers. Its colours range from red-brown and burgundy to deep purple and almost black, and it thrives on poor quality sandy soils, such as those found in ancient sand dunes or the kurkar (coastal sandstone) hills along the coast. Unfortunately, due to the shrinking of its natural habitat, it is becoming rarer year by year. However, Givat Humra is one of the few places where you can still admire this magnificent flower.

Givat Humra's name was given mistakenly. It is commonly assumed that it is called "Humra" after the red soil of the surrounding area (ḥumra means "red" in Arabic), but in fact, there is not a trace of red soil around it. The real reason likely lies with the nearby archaeological site D'harat al-Humariya, about half a kilometer south of the hill. The site was excavated in the 1960s and 70s, revealing Middle Bronze Age graves (around 2000 BCE). However, in the late 1950s, archaeologist Moshe Dothan surveyed the area and mistakenly identified the hill with this site, so since then it has been called Humra.

For many years the hill was neglected and used as a construction waste dump. In 2005, students from the regional Gan Raveh School cleaned most of the hill and laid out paths. The hill is not officially recognized as a nature reserve and is not formally maintained. Signage is minimal, but the short circular trail is suitable for the whole family and accessible.

The trail circles the hill and ascends at a gentle, very easy slope. Large concentrations of blooming purple irises could be found at the foot of the hill, especially on its northeastern side, while white broom, Rotem Ha Midbar, dominated at the top of the hill. The irises grow upright from the ground, with slender stems and delicate petals forming dense patches of deep purple that shone in the morning light.

The hill is part of the kurkar ridges in the coastal plain, generally running north-south. These kurkar ridges testify to changes in the Mediterranean Sea level in ancient times. The formation and melting of glaciers caused the sea level to move west and east, and in places where the water touched the land, sand turned into kurkar stone due to the influence of salt, wind, sun, and various processes.

In addition to the irises, many other flowers bloom on Givat Humra, including the aforementioned white broom, ragwort, oxalis, anemones, alkanet, clustered viper's bugloss, chrysanthemums, buttercups, poppies, mountain tulips, Tel Aviv garlic, and more. On the hill stands an abandoned house, surrounded by the remnants of orchards where prickly pear (sabra), pomegranates, grapevines, figs, and even a sycamore tree still grow.

Not far from Givat Humra, other populations of coastal iris grow in two locations: Iris Hill in Nes Ziona and the Purple Iris Nature Reserve in Beit Hanan.

* This post has been shared on Mosaic Monday, Monday Morning Blog Club, Busy Monday, Nature Notes, Weekly Wonders, Inspire Me Monday, Talking About It Tuesdays, Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop, Nature Thursday, Floral Friday Fotos and Funtastic Friday.