Neot Semadar Arts Centre

It's time for me to post something about Israel once again, about the beautiful side of the country I live in. This post was written over a year ago, when we took a short break in Eilat, Israel's southernmost city. We planned to go again this last December, but the war in Israel meant that we were unable to travel there.

Neot Semadar is a kibbutz in the southern Negev desert, about 70 kilometres north of Eilat. It was established in 1989 on the grounds of an abandoned kibbutz, Shizafon. The founders, a group of ideological young people who met whilst living in Jerusalem, shared a love of the desert, the desire to set up a communal community and to create an oasis in the southern Negev.

The kibbutz members created an organic community, engaged in agricultural waste recycling, and built eco-friendly homes. Their economy is based on agriculture, with 500 dunams of organically cultivated vineyards, olives, date plantations and a herb garden. The kibbutz also operates a boutique organic winery and produces a variety of cheeses from fresh goat milk. On our way to Eilat we stopped for lunch at their roadside restaurant, Pundak Neot Semadar, which offers vegetarian food and sells the kibbutz's organic products. It was delicious!

Before lunch we made a quick visit to the kibbutz's Arts Centre. Unfortunately it closes early several days of the week but, even though we arrived after their closing time, we got lucky and met a kibbutz member who was keen to show us around.
The Arts Centre is an architecturally unique building which serves as a gallery and studio for all of the artists living on the kibbutz. Many of their works of art are on display in the gallery located on the ground floor of the centre and a variety of workshops for stained glass, ceramics, textile, wood and metals are offered there. The building is insulated with mud bricks, with "air conditioning" supplied by a desert cooling tower.

The Arts Centre was gradually constructed by kibbutz members over a period of 15 years. The entire kibbutz participated and there was no blueprint for the building. Instead, many techniques of architecture were studied and applied as they went along. The members developed a special way of casting a mosaic floor, a technique of moulding reliefs and sculptures in concrete, and applied some desert construction principles, such as the massive air cooling tower which is kept cool using a unique evaporative cooling system. There is a balcony at the top of the tower, from which you can look out over the expansive desert surrounding the kibbutz.

Residents of the Neot Semadar had never worked on a project outside of the desert until the world-renowned Turkish architect Sinan Kafadar sought out their expertise while finishing off the interior of the 226 room Waldorf-Astoria in Jerusalem. About 10 kibbutz members employed techniques regularly practiced on the colourful eco-friendly buildings at Neot Semadar to make wall panels, door frames and number signs on the rooms at the historic 1929 hotel.

A program of courses and seminars in the Arts Centre is offered to people from Israel and abroad. Students can learn a new art form, while staying in one of the kibbutz's eco-friendly bed and breakfast units with gorgeous views that overlook the fields. Each unit has its own balcony and herb garden. There is a communal kitchen outfitted with appliances, kitchenware and a communal dining area, and prepared meals can be booked ahead of time.
I might just try one out one day.

*This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) and My Corner of the World.

She Requested a "Lisa Card"

I made this card a month before my youngest son died, so Meital is now a little older. It's a cute card though and one that I still wanted to share here. I hope she doesn't mind.
Meital requested a "Lisa card" that she could use as a new door sign for her bedroom. I made a set for her whole family back in 2019 and Meital wanted to update hers.

I was asked to show her singing and dancing. She loves 'Just Dance', a dance video game, and 'Simply Sing', an app that enables you to improve your singing. Mum also asked me to show Meital wearing the green shirt of NOAM, the youth movement she goes to. (NOAM is an acronym for No'ar Masorti, Masorti Youth, a Zionist youth movement.) The orange cord at the collar of Meital's shirt, known in Hebrew as a sroch hadracha, displays her rank.

Meital loves the caramel shortbread chocolate bar Twix and, in mum's words, "unfortunately her phone". There was also a request to include 'BTS', also known as the Bangtan Boys, a South Korean boy band and 'Black Pink', a South Korean girl group, on her card. I had to look them up!

I already knew that Meital loves Christmas and anything to do with it. I added a red Santa hat and some Christmas decorations, quite an unusual request for a Jewish girl living in Israel but hey, I love Christmas too! Finally mum told me that light grey is Meital's favorite colour, so I made that the background colour of her card.

Meital was going to be turning 10, but since she wanted to use the birthday card as a sign for her bedroom door, I decided to leave her age off the card on this occasion.

Mum told me that "I made someone very happy today!" when she opened her card. The accompanying photos were a delight to receive.

* This post has been shared on Thinking Out Loud Thursday, Little Things Thursday, Thursday Favorite Things

Kayla's Album

I made a sign-in book for Kayla's brother Jack back in March 2022. In 2023 their mum got in touch again to see if I was available to make another book, this time for her daughter.
The theme of the Bat Mitzvah is "what candles and light mean in Judaism", mum told me. Kayla loves the sunset at the beach. The candle lighting theme came about because of that.

Mum sent me a few photos of Kayla lighting the Shabbat candles by a window and left it to me to decide which was the best way to illustrate her daughter. She also asked if it was possible to add Kayla's Bat Mitzvah invitation to the design too. She originally wanted me to leave the date off the cover because it was already on the invitation, but the text was so very small that I suggested adding it in gold lettering as well.

Blonde hair and blue eyed Kayla is wearing the dress she planned to wear for her Bat Mitzvah. She is lighting the silver Shabbat candles by a window. A card showing the blessing that we make when lighting the candles is next to the candles.

It reads as follows:

Blessed are You, Lord our G-d, King of the universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to light the Shabbat lamp.
Shabbat candles are candles lit on Friday evening before sunset to usher in the Jewish Sabbath. It is customary to light two candles. I also light a candle for each of my children and am currently also lighting a third one for the Israeli hostages in Gaza, who are unable to light their own candles.

Even though the walls in the photos I received were white, I suggested making them a bolder colour to make Kayla stand out. I chose this flame yellow colour because of Kayla's chosen theme of candles and light.

I decorated several pages inside Kayla's book too. The first page shows her doing gymnastics, a hobby which she practices four times a week! She is wearing a black leotard and black shorts.

Next, I showed some of Kayla's friends. Mum said that Kayla's friends are important to her but that she also loves the television sitcom "Friends", so I added the show's logo as well.

Kayla also loves Netflix, so the following page shows it on the screen of her phone. She is a keen member of Bnei Akiva, the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world, with over 125,000 members in 42 countries. I showed the logo of the movement, which is made up of the Luchot (two stone tablets representing the Torah), wheat, an olive branch and a scythe and pitchfork. Kayla likes to be with her friends at Bnei Akiva, so I added a couple more friends too.

Pepper the family dog makes an appearance on the final page.

Kayla's mum wrote "The book is amazing. Thank you very much."
Just like Elisha, Kayla's Bat Mitzvah celebration was planned before 7th October, when terrorist attacks killed approximately 1,200 Israelis (and more have died in subsequent operations in Gaza and against Hezbollah). War broke out in Israel. I hope that Kayla was still somehow able to mark her Bat Mitzvah later that same month.

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun. and Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday).

To the Skies

Eden's 24th birthday was coming up and her mum asked me to make a card for her. She is a flight attendant for El Al, Israel's national airline, so mum asked me to show her daughter wearing their navy blue uniform. She told me that Eden regularly flies to New York and that it is her favourite place for a layover.

I decided to show Eden wearing the uniform she wears during flights. She prefers trousers with a white short-sleeved shirt and waistcoat. Mum made sure I knew about the gold tag she wears on her waistcoat and the scarf that all the female attendants wear. In addition, she always wears her hair in a plait with hair bands going down it, a style that keeps her hair away from her face.

There are blues skies and white clouds behind Eden. I added a number 24 to mark her age, along with a small photo of Times Square and the famous I ❤ NY logo. The logo was designed by graphic designer Milton Glaser in 1976 in the back of a taxi and has been used since 1977 to promote tourism in the state of New York.
A small plane is decorated in El Al's livery, which features a blue stripe with a thick silver border on the bottom that sweeps across the side of the aircraft near the wing, and a turquoise tailfin with the flag of Israel at the top.

El Al was founded in November 1948 as Israel's national airline and operated its first scheduled flight on 31st July 1949 from Tel Aviv, Israel to Rome and Paris. The airline began flying to many European destinations the same year, with services to the United States and South Africa starting in 1951. It is the only commercial airline to equip its planes with missile defence systems to protect its planes against surface-to-air missiles, and is considered one of the world's most secure airlines.

The name "El Al" comes from the Tanach, or Hebrew Bible, and means "to the above" or more poetically "to the skies". The phrase comes from the Book of Hosea. In the seventh verse of Chapter 11 of the book it says: "And my people are in suspense about returning to me; and though they call them to the above [el-al], none at all will lift himself up."
Eden messaged me to say that she loved the card.

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun. and Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday).