Book connects threads of spiritual meaning in fabric arts emma silvers
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j. staff
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In 2001, Arna Shefrin took a leave from her academic work running clinical research trials because of a repetitive-strain injury. Following instructions to stay away from the computer for a while, the Menlo Park resident set about finding other ways to keep her hands busy. Ten years later, her needlepoint work is celebrated for its rich use of color and attention to detail. Her crafts are on display at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, and her products — many of them Jewish ritual objects — are
Tallit bag by Arna Shefrin depicts Jerusalem
sold at the Palo Alto Art Center and several stores. “I always loved working with my hands,” says Shefrin. “But needlepoint really opened the door for me to a whole world of creativity.” Shefrin is one of a handful of Bay Area women featured in “Jewish Threads: A Hands-On Guide to Stitching Spiritual Intention into Jewish Fabric Crafts.” The 266page book, by Diana Drew with Robert Grayson, is the result of an international call for submissions of Jewish fabric work. It includes instructions and color photos showing elaborate quilts, wall hangings, chuppahs, handstitched matzah covers, woven tallit bags and more. Drew spent more than a year choosing from a range of projects from the U.S. and Israel, focusing on work that fit the book’s theme of exploring the ways artisans imbue their work with spirituality. At the heart of the book lie the artists’ stories: how they came to fabric crafts, what the medium has come to mean to them, and the intersections among their art, community and Jewish identity. One of those stories is from the Quilting Group with No Name, a six-member collective based in Berkeley. The women come together for projects ranging from a chuppah (for one member’s daughter’s wedding) to a tallit (for another member’s daughter’s bat mitzvah) to numerous quilts, many of which they donate to Jewish nonprofits to be raffled off in fundraisers. Most of the members belong to Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley.
They take particular pride in two quilts they made as a memorial project. Shalva Sorani, a fellow Netivot Shalom member, died in 2005, leaving behind two young daughters. Her friends gathered her clothing with the intention of making something for her children, but didn’t follow through. About a year later, one friend dropped off the bag full of clothes with the quilting group. The Quilting Group with No Name made two quilts Some of the group members had known in memory of an Oakland woman who died. Sorani, though none knew her well. They were overwhelmed by the importance on something, I want it to be meaningful.” Shefrin says that, though she doesn’t belong to a formal of what they were trying to create. Eventually, the group decided to make group, even going it alone as an artisan has brought her two quilts, one for each of her daugh- closer to others. After she created an incredibly detailed ters, that were similar but not identical. tallit bag for her husband, the artist says other people at They talked to Sorani’s mother, and her synagogue, Palo Alto’s Congregation Kol Emeth, learned that each night when Sorani began reaching out. “People would see him carrying it and say, ‘Who made put the girls to bed, she would sing Shlomo Carlebach’s “Angel Song.” your bag?” recounts Shefrin. “And we had been members They embroidered the Hebrew lyrics a long time by that point, but I really hadn’t met many people. So that was wonderful, that it became a way for me in a circle on the edges of each quilt. After months of work, they present- to meet members.” The artist added that, as the book came together, it was ed the quilts to the girls in a heartfelt ceremony, with music and food and interesting to see how many women came from profesthose closest to Sorani all in atten- sional backgrounds and had stumbled upon fabric crafts as a different outlet for their creative energy. Shefrin went dance. “It’s about the connections we make, to hiddur mitzvah [the beautification of the mitzvah], and to each other,” says Rivka Greenberg, a founding member of the quilting group. “The way we work with each other, we have to give and take. We research things, discuss what we might do, let an idea percolate for a while and then come back to it. It’s incredibly supportive.” Member Claire Sherman also contributed three other individual pieces to the book: a wall hanging for Sukkot, a baby quilt and afikomen envelopes for Passover. Sherman, who worked as a sculptor for many years before picking up quilting six years ago, says she particularly enjoys making baby quilts. “I like putting the baby’s name on it both in Hebrew and English,” she explains. She knew she was beginning to take quilting seriously when, a few years ago, she bought a beautiful fabric with Hebrew letters on it for a baby quilt, even though no one she knew was pregnant. Luckily, she says, “I was on the rabbi search committee at Netivot Shalom. In the next few months we hired Menachem Creditor, and his wife happened to be eight months pregnant at the time.” The rabbi’s daughter was the lucky recipient of Sherman’s next quilt. For Shefrin, there’s something beautiful about using Baby quilt by Claire Sherman needlepoint to create attractive and useful objects such as kippahs and tallit bags. “Much of the time when you think back to work after her injury healed, but she’s also taking ‘needlepoint,’ it’s just proverbs, a bowl of fruit, something classes in textile design and clothing construction. She that you frame,” she says. “If I’m going to spend 400 hours credits needlepoint with having opened her eyes to a host of new passions. “Many of these women are very well-respected academ“Jewish Threads: A Hands-On Guide ics and professionals, so these crafts are by no means a fallto Stitching Spiritual Intention into Jewish back — it’s an important part of our lives,” she says. “We’re Fabric Crafts” by Diana Drew with Robert Grayson part of a very longstanding Jewish tradition. It’s a beauti(266 pages, Jewish Lights Publishing, $19.99) ful thing.” ■
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| January 6, 2012