Chaim

Back in August 2024 a very organised customer wrote to tell me that her son, Chaim, was preparing for his Bar Mitzvah in January 2025. She had seen my work in the Facebook group Israeli shops to purchase from. The group was set up back in October 2023, in the aftermath of the outbreak of war in Israel. It currently has 82K members worldwide who are keen to buy handmade items from Israeli sellers. My customer wanted to commission a custom piece to mark her son's upcoming Bar Mitzvah. "I really love your work and know my son will, too!" she wrote.

After discussing the various options with her, my customer decided upon a larger piece that she could mount on a board for the Bar Mitzvah party guests to sign, and which she could then frame after the event. She wanted me to show her son wearing tefillin. He also loves biking, wants to fly and engineer airplanes, and is super talented at LEGO, she told me. She requested some musical notes and a food item. After checking with the Bar Mitzvah boy's siblings, they decided on sushi. Finally, she suggested that the centre square of the piece should be dark blue and her son should be wearing an aqua or lighter blue T-shirt with his current daily uniform of adidas joggers :)

I showed Chaim putting on his tefillin. There is a leather box containing parchment with biblical passages on his forehead and upper left arm. Different reasons are given for the seven straps wrapped around his arm below his elbow, but one suggestion is that they signify the seven days of the week. 

On Chaim's right there is some LEGO and a platter with sushi on it and some chopsticks. To his left there is an EL AL plane (EL AL is Israel's national airline), some music notes and a bike. The background box is dark blue, as requested, and Chaim is wearing the light blue shirt and adidas joggers with the important three white stripes.

My customer was delighted with the piece. "The picture arrived today and we love it!" she wrote to me. "Thank you so much. Chaim appreciates every detail of it, and we can't wait to display it at his Bar Mitzvah and afterwards."

She later sent me another message, along with the fabulous photos included in this post.

"Hi Lisa, the Bar Mitzvah was this weekend and I wanted to send you these photos from Saturday night! Many people commented on how wonderful the artwork is, and Chaim is happy to have such a special keepsake!"

* This post has been shared on Happiness is Homemade,  Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Tuesday Turn About, Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop and Creative Muster Link-Up.

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.

* This post has been shared on Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop and Wednesdays in the Studio.