Tovah's father was raised in an Orthodox family. Since this was the only tallit Tovah ever saw him wear, she assumes he received it for his Bar Mitzvah which would have been about 1924 which means this tallit is over 100 years old. 

Several times Tovah had tried to wear her father’s tallis, but it never felt right. She has  many heirlooms from her sister and mother, but all she had from my father was his tallit. They were very close, and she wanted to find a way to honor him and to feel wrapped in his arms. "There was nothing online that spoke to me until I found your website," she told me.  What an honor! 

Tovah also had a beautiful tallit bag which had belonged to her sister. Her sister was in her fifties when she had her Bat Mitzvah; and Tovah gifted her the tallit for her ritual. Her sister chose to be buried in the tallit, and Tovah kept the bag. 

Tovah's sister's tallit bag

Tovah's sister’s bag was sitting on a shelf, and as she passed by, it occurred to Tovah that perhaps there was a way to use the bag as part of the new tallit also. She shipped the two heirlooms to me, and I got to work. 

The Sketches

I proposed that we use the Atara (the thin piece around the neck of a tallit), stripes, and tzitzit from Tovah's father's tallit and take inspiration from the beautiful colors and patterns from her sister's bag as the painting for the new tallit. 

I proposed that I paint patterns based on the tallit bag and we use that as the background for the new tallit. Tovah loved this idea and went with Sketch 1. To include her mom in the tallit project, she also asked that I weave her mom's, dad's, sister's and Tovah's Hebrew names into the patterns. I loved this meaningful idea. 

The process

First I hand painted the patterns for the new tallit in watercolor and gold leaf on paper. I added more blues into the mix so that the new tallit would feel cohesive with the blue stripes from the original tallit.  

Next I printed the colorful patterns onto recycled linen fabric and added Tovah's family's Hebrew names. 

With the fabric and painting complete, it was time for my partner for all things fabric related, Ruth, to take over. She cut out the stripes, tzitzit, and atara from Tovah's dad's tallit to use for the new one. She worked carefully, taking special care of this precious heirloom. It's not every day that we get the honor of working with a 100 year old piece of Jewish history!  She added a pop of purple ribbon around the original Atara when she sewed it in to make it pop.

And she added white and yellow glitter and gold elements throughout the painting too. 

Tovah's brand new 100 year old tallit

I was so proud of how the new tallit came out! I even tried it on to see how it would look. I just knew Tovah would love how it came out as much as I did. 

Mazel Tov Tovah! 

Tovah, thank you for choosing me as your partner for this incredibly meaningful and important project. I cherished the experience and am so honored to work on a piece of Judaica with so much history. May you always feel your dad, sister and mom's embrace as you wear it in good health for many joyful Jewish moments. L'chaim! 

Getting ideas? I love to hear ideas of new projects! Learn about commissioning your own custom tallit, painting, or ketubah. Get in touch! Emails make my day.