A Symbol of Growth and Hope

A new customer wrote to me to tell me that she loved my teacher gift papercut. "Would you be interested in doing another similar one?" she asked. Her daughter's teacher had really gone over and above this last academic year. My customer thought that a papercut would be the perfect thank you gift.

She wanted me to make one small change to my design. She wanted to know if I could replace the infinity symbol with some sort of "giving hands" symbol. After a short discussion we decided to show a hand holding a fresh young plant, a symbol of growth and hope.

The hand merged seamlessly into my design, blending well with the decorative flowers, leaves and vines. In the middle of the piece I cut out the word "Ha-Morah" (the teacher). My customer liked the idea of green for growth as the backing colour. I picked out this grass green paper and then framed the piece in a birch wood coloured frame.

The cherished teacher who received my papercut, who I happen to know, wrote to me. "As you know, I am the lucky recipient of one of your papercuts. It's beautiful."

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun. and Tuesday Turn About

"Ha-Morah"

As summer approaches and you all start thinking about end-of-year teacher gifts, I thought I'd share with you some pieces I created back in 2022. I have not yet posted about them here.

My customer wrote to me to tell me that her daughter was graduating high school that year. She had had the same two teachers for the past six years and really wanted to get a special gift for them. She asked me to create a custom-made papercut and was totally open to suggestions regarding the design.

One thought my customer had was to include the word "Ha-Morah" (the teacher) in the design and to add decorative leaves and vines. Her daughter also wanted to incorporate an infinity symbol, which has been adopted by the autism/neurodiversity community, though she didn't want the symbol to be the main focus. Flowers are great too, she said.

I created a circular piece, which fitted into a 9x9 inch frame. The inside circle is solid with the word המורה (the teacher) cut out of it. The outer circle is filled with pomegranates, flowers and vines, along with my signature little bird. The infinity symbol, which specifically represents autism acceptance, appears at the bottom of the papercut and blends in nicely with the swirly vines.

If my customers are local, which this lady is, I offer to frame my pieces too. My customer asked me to frame one piece in jewel tone green and one in jewel tone blue.

The papercuts were very well received.

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Inspire Me Tuesday and Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop.