Benjo's Album

Benjo celebrated his Bar Mitzvah back in November and I made him an album, just like I did for his older brothers Ro'i, Yonatan and Daniel. And believe it or not, there is still one more brother to be Bar Mitzvahed! I will make him his own album in a few years time.

I have made many birthday cards for Benjo and his brothers over the years as well, so his mum knew exactly how I work. She asked me to show Benjo on the cover of his album wearing tefillin (phylacteries). Tefillin consist of two leather boxes with parchment with biblical passages inside. Jewish men start wearing tefillin just before their Bar Mitzvah. They are worn on the forehead and upper arm. A right-handed person, which Benjo is, places tefillin on the left arm.

Benjo loves sushi, so mum asked me to put some on the album cover as well. He has some prized Sonos Ace headphones, and finally, he wanted Chelsea Football Club somehow to feature too.

I have shown Benjo wearing his tefillin on his head and on his left arm. Behind him is the Chelsea badge with a blue lion rampant on it. The lion was initially based on the official coat of arms for the Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea. Benjo's white headphones are also in the background, while to his left is a plate with some sushi, and next to it some chopsticks.
Benjo's name appears at the top in gold Hebrew letters. The words Bar Mitzvah and date are at the bottom. There is a tallit in two corners of the album. The tallit is a fringed garment worn as a prayer shawl by Jewish men over Bar Mitzvah age during morning prayer services, and on the Sabbath and on holidays.

I decorated five pages inside the album. Each page had a tallit on it. In addition, on the first page I added the Chelsea badge and a football. The following page featured Benjo's Sonos Ace headphones and also his VR headset. Next came the GeoGuessr logo, with a map of the world in the background. GeoGuessr is an online geography game in which players are tasked to guess locations from Google Street View imagery. Benjo loves the beach, so I added a little beach scene with the sun setting. Apparently his family always head to the beach later on in the day.

Finally, Benjo likes to cook. Mum asked me to include his hand held food burner torch and Benjo especially wanted me to show it with a blue flame coming out of it. There was also a request for me to add a wok with noodles and chopped vegetables, just as I had done for his brother Daniel's album.

Mum was delighted with the album and prominently displayed it at Benjo's Bar Mitzvah celebration. He wanted to add all the memorabilia from his Bar Mitzvah to the book after the event.
"The album is absolutely stunning!! We all LOVE the album and feel special to have it!" she wrote to me.

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