Talia's Album

It's always exciting to receive orders for pieces that are going to travel quite far, so I was very happy when a potential customer from Scotland contacted me about an album for her daughter's Bat Chayil. (Bat Chayil means 'daughter of valour' and is an Orthodox Jewish ceremony. It takes place in Orthodox synagogues at a date close to the girl's 12th birthday. The girl will give a talk on a Jewish topic, but not during the Sabbath service.)

"I love your guest books!" my new customer wrote to me. "Our daughter’s Bat Chayil is on 16th February. Would you be able to make us one in time to ship to Scotland?" Of course I could!

My customer sent me a few details about her daughter, Talia. She enjoys drama club, music, makeup, playing the violin and, of course, her friends. She also has a black cat called Sooty. The colour scheme for the Bat Chayil celebration was to be purple and lilac (definitely the Bat Mitzvah colours of the moment, check out these recent albums here and here). I had plenty to work with!

I have shown Talia with her violin under her chin and Sooty the cat in her other arm. To the left are some theatre masks to illustrate her interest in drama, and to the right are a mix of music notes and some makeup. The date of Talia's Bat Chayil appears at the top of the papercut illustration, and her name and the words Bat Chayil are at the bottom. The background box is purple and Talia's t-shirt lilac, to match the colour scheme of her Bat Chayil celebration. A Magen David in two corners of the album, surrounded by purple and lilac too, add a Jewish element to the design.

I decorated several pages inside the album along the same themes. Each page had a Magen David (Star of David) on it. From the top you can see the drama page, then a page with a tiny eyeshadow palette, lipsticks and a brush. Next, the cat makes a reappearance, while some colourful music notes decorate the next page. Finally I added a miniature violin and bow, which I can tell you took me quite some time to create!

My customer left me the most wonderful five star review in my Etsy shop. It seems that she was pleased with her daughter's album:

5 out of 5 stars
"This seller was wonderful to deal with! It was so easy to discuss the personalisations we were looking to add to the guest book. The book was shipped really quickly, with no issues at all. The end result was really beautiful, is of a very high quality and was admired by everyone signing and adding photographs to it at my daughter’s party."

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