Yael's Album

I made a Bat Mitzvah album for Yael's sister, Noa, who lives in Singapore, back in 2014. It is always exciting to receive orders from "foreign lands", so I was delighted to hear from Mum once again when she contacted me to order an album for her second daughter. Mum wanted a book which opens the English way (Hebrew books open from right to left) but requested that her daughter's name be displayed in both English and Hebrew, and the date in Hebrew alone.

Yael does gymnastics, she loves candy and chocolate, she has an iPhone 5, and she also likes rollerblading. Mum requested a "portrait" of Yael on the album's cover, with the different topics surrounding her, like I did for Noa. She also suggested that I add the Marina Bay Sands hotel, a Singapore symbol and a big attraction, to represent Yael's current home.

I have shown brown haired Yael surrounded by a few of her favourite things. To her left are some sweets and jelly beans. To her right is the Marina Bay hotel, and her iPhone underneath. At the bottom is a pair of grey and purple roller blades. The background box is turquoise and Yael's t-shirt bright pink, to match the colour scheme of her party. These colours were chosen to echo the colours of the colourful Megillat Esther, "The Scroll of Esther", a firsthand account of the events of Purim, which were being used at Yael's celebration.

I decorated five pages inside the album. The first page had a flamingo on it (Yael likes them), followed by a page with the flags of the three places she has lived - Israel, Italy and Singapore. She of course likes playing on an iPad, so next I added a picture of that, along with her phone. Yael specifically requested a page showing her doing a cartwheel. I went with my usual obsessiveness eye for detail and especially asked Mum what colour leotard and leggings she wears for gymnastics. Finally, I created a page of full of candy (or sweets, as I call them!). Apparently Yael has quite a taste for them!

Yael's grandparents took the album to Singapore with them when they went to visit the family there. Mum seemed thrilled with it and wrote to say "I can't believe how much the picture of Yael looks like her. Thank you. It's beautiful. Yael really likes it."