The Colorful Parochet

It all started when a very good friend of mine, Hunny, from high school contacted me about wanting to make a beautiful parochect for the shul in honor of Mr. Eisenberg, one of their Shul members, who had passed away. Without any hesitation I got to work with gathering all of the information, figuring out the design, to the passuk, and the colors. I’m gonna show you this whole process.

The inspiration:

Before I start anything I gave Hunny some pictures. to give her a “picture” of what she’s envisioning so we could bring this parchet to life.

Here are some of the pictures that i sent to her to get some inspiration of what she wanted.

The Passuk:

While she was looking at the inspiration, we were settling on a passuk, that would give the best impression on the shul.

This is the passuk that she chose, I loved it so much! But this was only the beginning.

The composition:

After the inspiration was getting settled , I sent her the very fist rough draft, of what the parochet might look like.

Another rough direction, with close-ups of each of the fruits. No full trees. Just a close-up of branches/leaves/fruits - What I sent to Hunny

I like to settle on the placement of all the elemets, so that i know i have everything that needs to be there in place, and then I get to work on the colors. But of course the composition is always subject to change.

During the process, I showed Hunny, a video of my work. enjoy! :)

After some “back and forth’s we found our colors and compstion that we both liked.

So i sent this to Hunny:

“Here is a new mock-up. With the tree that you liked, with your passuk, with a few of the Shivat HaMinim in the tree (as well as an etrog!!!) and with a 'Ayal Taarog'.

Please tell me if we're heading in the right direction!”

The Final:

Here’s the final desgin! We changed the colors, made it a brighter, and added Jerusalem homes. We kept the Shivat Haminim, and passuk. Look how beutiful it turned out!

Choosing the fabrics:

So now we had to pick the right color of fabrics. Here were some of the ideas I had for the sky.

And this is a video I sent to Hunny to show her the textures and colors.

The Production:

Once the design is final, we were up to making the parochet come to life with sewing and embrodery!

This is the first drafts of the digitizing file for the parochet. You can see how many thread colors we'll be using for the project!

Here’s a behind the sences video of my embroidery lady embroidering the grapes to the background fabric with a hand-maneuvered machine!

Most times I get in contact with the shul’s designers to match the shuls designs and their fabrics. This was from Hunny’s Shul, they contacted me with this message:

“Please see the attached pictures with the finish materials and colors for Young Israel, Southfield. The “Material” picture is showing all the finishes together. The charcoal carpet and the gray fabric are used mostly as accents. The wood will be used for the Bimah, chairs / benches and Aron Kodesh. The “fabric2” will apply on all the benches and chairs. The “carpet – main” picture will apply on all the floors in the sanctuary. See below for the main carpet for additional information.”

Sending it off:

Once everything is finished and done, we take tons of pictures and ship it off to its rightful owners!

Getting the feedback:

“Thank you so so much. I wanted to let you know how beautiful the PAROCHET Channa made for our shul People are constantly complimenting it. Some people tell me they stand in from of it for a few minutes just enjoying the beauty and detail. It is truly a masterpiece and we are so grateful”

Hunny really 'chapped' the essence of what I'm trying to achieve:
Elevating the world of fashion and design to becoming holy and spiritual.

Something that I constantly argued over with my Mechanchim at Seminar Ofakim was the meaning of Holiness.
I was sure that it meant living in a monastery or on a mountain in TIbet and cutting yourself off from the world.
They insisted that it meant uplifting everything in the physical world and using it for Avodas Hashem, (including making yourself happy).

How does Hunny fit into this?

She was a great friend of mine in high school. We'd watch Carolina Herrera fashion shows together on shaky internet connections, , ogle over fashion magazines and spend hours each day designing high-end ballgowns (in the back of our classroom!!!).

She and her husband have now decided to donate a parochet to their shul!
Hunny and I are striving to uplift our mutual love and appreciation of the beauty in this world and use it for a very holy purpose- designing a truly meaningful parochet that will inspire the members of her shul!

Talk about coming full circle!!!

On the wall:

Here’s a video Hunny sent me when the parochet came, and it was up on the wall!