The Crane

Cranes may be the oldest bird on earth. There is fossil evidence that they have existed more than 60 million years ago. There is a legend that the crane’s legs grow before its wings do, making for a bird with strong ties to the earth.  They are, symbolically, creative creatures, being particularly famous for their extravagant dancing and the sandhill crane in particular, is known for it's singing, producing a range of vocalizations, from a sing loud warning call to the synchronized calls of a breeding pair and a low, soft call to maintain contact while foraging. Male and female birds incubate eggs and parent together and find nourishment according to what they find available in the environment in which they find themselves.  

This illumination this called "The Crane."  It has been maybe 9 months from conception to completion, which was just this last weekend.  The crane depicted here is not in it's original ancient form but has been augmented by a new infusion into the reality of Earth.

There are 6 seed rays encountering the Earth. Each ray is led by a hand.

There is an internal calligraphy to each of the 6 hands - the Hebrew word YESH -"there is" - spelled yud shin.  Here is an example of the word YESH made into a cufflink: 

If you notice, the hands at the helm of the 6 rays don't quite match the YESH above.  It is a 4-branched shin along with the yud that forms the hands. The name of the 4 branched shin is Ha Ot - "the letter". 

The 13th-century mystical text, the Sefer HaTemunah speaks of a single letter of unknown pronunciation (such as the four-branched shin on one side of the head tefillin box) which is missing from the current alphabet. The distorted nature of the world is related to the absence of this letter.  Its eventual restoration will bring reparation to the world.

The theme of "six" is recurring.  The Earth herself is composed of a six-fold geometry, an expression of "as above so below".  Behind the cutwork is a piece of fabric with a watery photo of the earth taken from space.  Water is another recurring theme - the seminal droplets of the rays, the Earth, the crane.

As I mentioned in the beginning, despite the simple elements of this illumination, it took an exceptionally long time to come to fruition.  It wasn't until silver was added to all 3 elements that it came alive. That was somewhere around 2:30pm February 16 MST.  May it signal the triggering of a new order and release of energies required to see us into a new era.

Sanctuary

It's been a year since my last post.  I submerged myself in my garden this year as a means of getting through the demoralizing news cycle.  Being winter I took refuge again in my studio and was provided with a most wonderful assignment, which I describe here.

Judith has recently designed, built and moved into her new home in the Baca. She hails from New York but has been looking for somewhere that would resonate for her as a true home.

She has loved my work for sometime and asked me to create a ceremonial homecoming piece for her that celebrates her home as a sacred space.

Judith has been coming to a group that meets at my studio on Friday afternoons to do Hebrew chant. She is not Jewish, nor for that matter are any of the other participants outside of myself, but she is a singer and loves the sound and mystery of the chants. She’s even teaching herself the Hebrew alphabet. Consequently, she wanted a Hebrew word included in her piece that meant “Sanctuary.” That word transliterates as mishkan. Mishkan (in Hebrew) appears in the central cutwork backed by turquoise mirror.

We talked about other elements she equates with a personal sacred home space to develop a highly personalized symbolic self-portrait. Those symbolic elements included a Sri Yantra, something verdant (gardener that she is), transformative animal totems (the peacocks and dragonfly) and a chicory flower, which she particularly loved in her New York garden.

Despite the quantity of disparate elements and the size limitation of 18”x18” with an arched roof, the design flowed together easily, the patina that developed was fabulous, flaming brought life to the sri yantra as did the small drill points of light.

Somehow the chicory and dragonfly danced together and was brought into resonance with the rest by means of some iridescent enamel. I am sooooooo pleased and she is too.

Call and Response

She, who sits in the gardens

Friends hearken to Your voice

Enable me to hear You

Song of Songs 8:13

Call and Response 
Acid-etched copper with ink oxides, mounted on mahogany
19"x21"

After coming out of the acid, it took some time to re-find and polish the intricate arabesque patterns.  I had no sense of how to proceed from there.  About a week later my hand picked up a sanguine ink pen which began outlining the forms around that very busy, verdant outer world of Asiah.  It looked like the inside of the design wanted a color so I began with phithalo blue (don't you  just love the name of these colors?), which also moved into the next inner layer of Yetzirah. The flow was right but the color of the Asiah level was not right.  I remembered my heat gun and blasted the inks that were laid down to keep them in place, then overlaid the blue of Asiah with a verdant  leaf green. That was "it".  Here's how it started to look:

Wonderful.  I also began to see the emerging color relationship between the flow of worlds all embedded in the world of Atzilut, the copper spaciousness.

As you can see, the points of light encircling the center (the world of Briah) are outlined in sanguine, then Briah itself is saturated in sanguine, with the letters outlined in phithalo blue.

A bit hard to tell, you'll have to trust me on that.  I really was there.

After a good flaming came the piercing of the lights.  It all began to move.

A subtler reflective glow comes from brushing Everbrite sealant over all but the Atzilut expanse. 

There is much for me to learn and feel around this illumination.  The original Hebrew words can be unraveled in a myriad of ways.  I have placed it now above my kitchen table to feel more of its Call and Response.

As always, happy for any response of your own, either personally or in the comments of this blog.

Apples & Roses

Apple Rose Plate - $400

Just completed.

Gardener that I am, I was thinking of all things garden when this design dreamed itself up. What you see is a food functional brass plate with an apple tree and a rose - symbols from the Song of Songs of love and union. 

I could see it filled and placed on the table for Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot,  Tu B'Shevat and all joyous occasions that combine food with love and celebration.  

A 14" diameter brass plate (easier to come by and considerably more affordable than copper) served as my canvas for this etching.  Colorful metallic waxes give it a kind of folk-artsy feel.  I did seal the surface with a clear shellac to preserve those colors and then added a removable glass plate that fits into the center section (not seen in the photo), to keep usability pretty simple.  The glass can be washed after use and the brass plate can be lightly cleaned with a soft damp cloth.

The Hebrew verses around the raised border come from Shir Hashirim and Shir Hama'alot (126): “As an Apple amidst the trees of the forest (right); "As a Rose among thorns”(left); “those who plant in tears" (lower);  will harvest in joy” (upper).  These sweet references speak to earthiness - of  our being both planters and that which is planted. They speak of envisioning ourselves as uniquely beloved and they point to the sacred nature of life that conspires for our happiness, carrying us through trials of tears and hard work towards wholeness and fulfillment.

May your plates be filled to overflowing with a joyous new year and a fruitful harvest.

L'Shana Tova!

Love Tokens

The more I considered the Yizkor candle settings I was creating the more I began to focus on life.  To be honest, I wasn't getting much pleasure out of focusing on death, grief and the initial moments of being torn apart.

There needs to be incorporated, not initially perhaps but down the line, a sweetness of remembrance that evokes the stories of connection - the living part of a relationship that doesn't cease when one side of the bond steps over the boundary of physical existence.

When my father died, even decades later, people would find out that I was his daughter spontaneously tell me their most beloved stories about the life he shared with them.  I searched out his desk after he died and found a whole page of sayings that he had assembled like "An atheist is a man with no invisible means of support." Of course I've updated that one to be somewhat more inclusive but continue to delight in having one in my back pocket.

I have my mother's recipe for Passover popovers, the seeds from a Cinderella pumpkin that my beloved buddy Yoanna brought back to me from a roadside farm stand in New Mexico, the silk robe of my dear friend and mentor Jacob Goldberg, z"l , falling apart after all these years.  Legacies. Stories. Love tokens.

A woman named Wendy Rosen, whose husband died four years ago, told me recently that she's come to the conclusion that what really matters after someone has passed can easily fit into a small box.  I was bewildered at first, but the more I thought of it the more joy it gave me. I started to make a list of the sorts of things of real significance I could fit into a small box.  Here are some of the things I came up with, though each person I have loved would have chachkis included that would be particular to themselves:

• tickets from a ball game or Broadway musical which we attended together
• a snippet of fabric from a favorite dress or old tee shirt
• a favorite recipe
• some idea or thought written on a paper napkin 
• a word or phrase from a magical moment that would bring it all back
• a dried flower from a garden; a seed
• stories written on a sheet of paper and folded small from those who were compatriots

"one rubber band, a hand full of sand and even a rusty nail" are song lyrics from Bruce Kates about the stuff of stories that he packed up in his valise.

I'd love to hear what you'd add to this list and the story that goes with it.

As you can tell from the top image, I have redesigned the Yizkor candle settings to include a box - a Living Memory Yizkor box.  I changed out the base as well and am making it from aromatic cedar, which in many cultures is identified with the Tree of Life.  With the help of a 1/2" square of plywood wrapped in copper foil it now serves as the lid for the memory box.  I also updated two of the copper backplates to include the word "L'Chayim" - "to Life."

I've finally gotten these as well as the Tikkun Olam settings up on my Etsy store: Moresca   Since they work so beautifully on their own, I'm also offering just the lids of the boxes as candle settings. 

I've changed the base of Tikkun settings over to aromatic cedar as well: 

Love,

Shahna

Children of the Palace

B'nei heichala dichsifin l'mechezei ziv d'z'eir anpin.

Yahon hacha b'hai taka d'vei malka b'gilufin.

"The children of the palace yearn to see the splendor of the microcosmic mirror.

They are gathered here, at this table, in which the King is engraved."

These are the first two lines of a medieval Aramaic mystical poem attributed to Isaac Luria, the Holy Ari.  Bnei Heichala - The Children of the Palace, is chanted at Seudah Shlishit or Shalosh Seudos - the third Sabbath meal that begins in the late afternoon as the sun is setting or just before the sun sets and continues until the stars are visible in the sky and the beginning of Havdalah, the closing ritual of the Sabbath.  It is a way to push the boundaries of the sacred to their outermost edge.  This holy moment within the timeless is the hour of Ra'avah (Resh Alef Vav Hei) - seeing deeply into the dimensions of time and space. The Zohar hails it as not just Ra'avah but Ra'avah D'Ra'avah - a time of seeing to the depths. 

I have translated Z'eir Anpin (the Little Face) of the original Aramaic text as "the microcosmic mirror."  That is how my dear friend and Torah Chaver, Jacob Goldberg z"l, translated it.  Just as an entire room is reflected within the back of a polished silver spoon, so is the feminine nature of divinity a Microcosmic Mirror of the Real.

The image of noble children seated around a table in which the King is engraved waiting anxiously for a vision of splendor, as you might have guessed, has my name on it.

In March of this year I happened upon three solid copper West Bend serving trays from a 1795 farm house estate in New Hampshire being offered for sale. I made an offer.  My offer was accepted.  

The copper on all three had darkened significantly over time, but all are perfectly etch-able once I go in with an enthusiastic effort of elbow grease, which I have applied to platter number one.

See, then, the table in which the King is engraved:

B'nei Heichala Tray- acid-etched copper with ink oxides

14 1/2 " in diameter.  The handles extend to 16 1/8".  Wonderful original wood handles.  Oak, I believe.

The wonderful base I found at a Habitat for Humanity Restore in Alamosa.  Had been the base of a bird bath. Very heavy.  30" high.

The tray itself photographed quite well without its glass covering which protects it during use.

With the glass it is quite beautiful in person but has too much reflectivity for a  good photo.

May that day arrive when we may come together and see each other deeply.

Healing Hand

Now that I have begun creating hiddur mitzvah - a beautiful object that enlivens ones bonding with divinity - it has been my deep request to be the vehicle for such an object that would address my own need to be a participant in restoring the ripping fabric of this world that we are all witnessing at this moment.  My request was answered on the fourteenth day (Yud Dalet) of the counting of the Omer, just short of two weeks ago. I clearly understood that I was to make a votive candle setting with a hand. 

The words I was to place upon the hand I have known since I was a little child. They come from one of the myriad versions of Henai Ma Tov.  This particular version has a Klezmer feel, is a call and response punctuated with a fast chorus. The words of the chorus are: Ve'al yidai zeh yushpa shefa rav - "by means of this (hand) is caused to flow a great Supernal flowing."  I never knew where those words came from and never saw them written.  Over the years I have tried to find their source with no luck.  Nevertheless, these words sang to me and became the theme of a mezzuzah I created for my own door. That mezzuzah is also inscribed with the Arabic word "shifa" which means "healing." What an elegant confluence of meanings from the same 3-letter root. This instruction for this setting however, precluded the use any Arabic, which frankly left me bewildered about the meaning of this assignment.

It's been a few years since my last search so I gave Google another shot, and this time struck a gusher!  An off-hand reference was made to the source of the words, which I followed to the very end of the counting of the Omer.  I don't know if it is in all siddurim but it was in mine (Siddur Rinat Yisrael, Nusach S'fard):

"...And by means of this (hand) there is caused to flow a Great Supernal Flowing in all the Worlds. To repair the 3 aspects of our human souls: Nefesh (Vital Life Energy), Ruach (The Motivating Spirit), and Neshama (Divine Spark), from all dross and scar and to cleanse us and make us holy by means of Your Supernal Holiness.   Amen, Selah."

"...in all the worlds" - yes, the 4 cosmological worlds of Atzilut, Briah, Yetzirah and Asiah, but I'm thinking of the worlds both personal and public, physical and spiritual of politics, emotion, inter-personal relations, bio-sphere, finance, family ... ALL the worlds that need to be washed clean.

"To repair our own Nafshotainu, Ruchotanu and Neshmotainu" from scum and scar so that we can, each of us,  evolve into true humans, reflective of the holiness of which we are made.

Yes, let us rally in front of the offices of our congressmen, join the resistance, but also light a candle for the inner transformation that will make the ultimate difference in the future of the "worlds" and this planet.

Tikkun Olamot - "Restoration of the Worlds":

Available at Moresca