Gilad's Album

Remember Gilad's invitation? Well, this is Gilad's album, which he took to his Bar Mitzvah party for all his guests to write in. His Mum told me that he loves drawing, bike riding, origami and daydreaming so, just like on his invitation, I showed him doing all those things. He is dressed for his Bar Mitzvah ceremony too, with his kippa (skullcap) on his head and a tallit (a Jewish prayer shawl) over his shoulders.

I either put a Star of David or a tallit as a graphic element on the corner of my Bar Mitzvah album covers and on each embellished page inside. Gilad's Mum decided to go for the blue and white striped tallit, below.

The tallit is a garment Jewish men wear during prayer. Tallit is an Aramaic word from the root tll / טלל meaning 'to cover over'. By wrapping yourself in the tallit, or by covering your head with it, it is believed that the intention and direction of your prayers can be enhanced.

The tallit is striped simply because that was the fashion in Greece and Rome in the Biblical period. However, the stripes remind us of the strand of techelet (blue) once worn as part of the tzitzit, the special knotted fringes attached to the tallit's four corners. The Torah commands that tzitzit contain a thread of techelet.
"Blue is like sea,
Sea is like sky
Sky is like the Throne of the Lord." - from the Talmud, the basic book of Jewish law.
The dye used for this blue colour came from an animal called the chilazone, thought to have either been a squid or a type of snail.

So, I decorated each page of Gilad's album with a tallit and a small illustration of each of his hobbies. Above you can see the page which shows his love of drawing, then, clockwise from top left, his passion for bike riding, reading, daydreaming and origami.

Gilad came to collect the album himself and seemed thrilled with it. His Mum later wrote and said "the album is just stunning... love it. Thanks so much."

Wow! What a great customer she was.