Category Archives: woven music

13 Saturday Apr 2019

Posted by in Challah Covers, Handmade, Judaica, Will's Blog, woven music

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Three “Hatikva” Challah Covers have just come off my loom here at the Woven Judaica division of Ephods and Pomegranates.  They are about 16″ x 20″, handwoven from 100% cotton.

The price is $45.00 each,  in our Etsy Shop:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/684668718/hatikva-challah-cover?ref=shop_home_active_1&frs=1

HC1

“Hatikva” which means “The Hope,” was the song of the early Zionist movement, and is now the national anthem of Israel.  The design of the Challah Cover is “woven music” – the bands represent the first 8 measures of “Hatikva.”  The different colors are different notes, and the width of the bands is the length of the note.  This is an artistic rendition, so there are no lines separating notes or measures but you can see how it works here:

Hatikva Challah Cover

The words that go along with it are:

As long as the Jewish spirit is yearning deep in the heart . . .

Kol ode balevav P’nimah – Nefesh Yehudi homiyah . . .

HC2

 

 

You Shall Make Tzitzit

15 Sunday Jul 2018

Posted by in Handmade, Judaica, Liturgical and Prayer, Scarves, Tallits, Will's Blog, woven music

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

TS3

The “Tallit Prayer Scarf”

Today tallits come in many sizes, shapes, colors and designs.  This is possible because their are no rules governing what the tallit as a garment should look like.  The only part of the tallit that is prescribed is the tzitzit (tassels or fringes) at the four corners:

Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them that they shall make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations, and that they shall affix a thread of sky-blue on the fringe of each corner.

This shall be tzitzit [fringes] for you, and when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of G‑d to perform them, and you shall not wander after your hearts and after your eyes after which you are going astray.  

So that you shall remember and perform all My commandments, and you shall be holy to your L‑rd.  (Numbers 15:38 – 40)

I have found that the larger sizes of tallits are a bit, well, large for use in daily prayer at home, or while traveling.  So I created the tallit scarf in the photo above.*  It was woven on my rigid heddle loom, of 100% cotton.  The tzitzit are hand tied.

If there is an interested , we will offer them in our Etsy and Amazon Shops at Ephods and Pomegranates.

Tallit Scarf 2

Blessing for wearing the tzitzit (the tallit):

Blessed are you, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who has sanctified us with commandments, and instructed us to wrap ourselves in tzizit.

This shall be tzitzit [fringes] for you . . .  It is said that this is one of the few commandments who purpose is carefully explained in Torah:  and when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of G‑d to perform them, and you shall not wander after your hearts and after your eyes after which you are going astray.  In a very real sense, the commandment to wear tzitzit is equal in importance to all the others put together, because its purpose is to remind us of them all.

There are several different designs of tallits in our Etsy and Amazon shops.  Perhaps this tallit scarf, which I have woven for myself, will become one of them.

* The scarf shown is a woven representation of the climax of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which includes Schiller’s poem “Ode to Joy:

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

Joy, beautiful spark of the gods,
Daughter from Elysium,
We enter, drunk with fire,
Heavenly One, thy sanctuary!
Your magic binds again
What convention strictly divides;
All people become brothers,
Where your gentle wing abides.

 

 

“Hatikva” Challah Covers

03 Tuesday Jul 2018

Posted by in Handmade, Judaica, Will's Blog, woven music

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Now on Will’s Loom:  Challah Covers with a Hatikva Theme:

 

I’m combining my “Woven Music” scarf line with my “Woven Judaica” line to produce “Hatikva” Challah Covers.  Hatikva (The Hope) is the national anthem of Israel, but it got its start much earlier in the early days of the Zionism movement. This from the knesset.gov.il website:

The words of Israel’s national anthem were written as a nine-stanza poem by poet Naftali Herz Imber and were first published in 1876 or 1877 (the exact date is unknown). It served as the anthem of the Zionist Movement at the 18th Zionist Congress in 1933. When the State of Israel was established, the first stanza and refrain were adopted as the national anthem. Until 2004, Hatikva was not officially the national anthem when it was rooted in the “Flag and Emblem Law” of 1949 which then became the “Flag, Emblem, and National Anthem Law, 5709-1949.”

Hatikva text in Hebrew:

עוֹד לֹא אָבְדָה תִּקְוָתֵנוּ,
הַתִּקְוָה בַּת שְׁנוֹת אַלְפַּיִם,
לִהְיוֹת עַם חָפְשִׁי בְּאַרְצֵנוּ,
אֶרֶץ צִיּוֹן וִירוּשָׁלַיִם.		 כֹּל עוֹד בַּלֵּבָב פְּנִימָה
נֶפֶשׁ יְהוּדִי הוֹמִיָּה,
וּלְפַאֲתֵי מִזְרָח, קָדִימָה,
עַיִן לְצִיּוֹן צוֹפִיָּה,

Transliteration of Hatikva text:

Kol od balevav penimah,
Nefesh yehudi homiyah,
Ulefa-atei mizrach, kadimah,
Ayin letziyon tsofiyah.		 Od lo avdah tikvateinu
Hatikva bat shnot alpayim,
Lihyot am chofshi be-artzeinu,
Eretz tzion, virushalayim.

Translation of the Hatikva:

As long as in the heart within,
The Jewish soul yearns,
And toward the eastern edges, onward,
An eye gazes toward Zion.		 Our hope is not yet lost,
The hope that is two-thousand years old,
To be a free nation in our land,
The Land of Zion, Jerusalem.

The colors portray the first four bars of Hatikva.  Each different color is a different note. (For art’s sake, where there are two or more of the same note together, they are portrayed in one wider band.) The width of the bands indicates the length of the note.

Watch this site for finished pictures. The Hatikva Challah Covers will be available in our Etsy and Amazon shops, linked from www.ephodsandpomegranates.com

Hatikva Music

Woven Bach

26 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by in Scarves, Will's Blog, woven music

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Woven Passacaglia 1Have you ever wondered what the sound of Bach looks like?  No, not on an oscilloscope, but in the rich colors of woven cloth, in a way that works just like sheet music?

You’ve probably seen me post before about the connection between music and weaving – the similarities between sheet music and weaving graphs.  My first [project was a portrayal of Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major.  Next was the Czech National Anthem, a gift for my first violin teacher, Lucie Carlson.

Here we have Passacaglia in C minor for organ, by Johann Sebastian Bach.  Each of the colors represents a different note, and the width of the bands indicates the time value of the note.  If you have the key to the colors, you can play this scarf just like sheet music.

Bach Passacaglia

In woven fabric, this is what the sound of Bach Looks like, the first 40 measures or so.  It begins and ends with the opening on the bass pedals. Listen below:

 

Woven Music!

09 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by in Will's Blog, woven music

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Mozart Scarf 3My first venture into the art of the handweaving of Baroque music on a loom is complete.  I am willing to bet that, unless you have been following this blog, you have never seen anything like it.

The horizontal color bands on the scarf are actually the musical score of the beginning theme from Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major (for violin) by W. A. Mozart.  Over my right shoulder it reads from bottom to top; over my left shoulder from top to bottom.  The color indicates the note, the width of the bar indicates the length of the note.  A wide black bar separates measures; a narrow black bar separates notes.

Thus, the first measure (top left, just under the violin) is a dotted quarter note B, an eighth note C, and a quarter note B.  The final measure (bottom left or top right) is a whole G.  You can play by reading the scarf just like a musical score.

The plaid effect comes from the multi-colored warp.  The warp threads are arranged in the Fibonacci Series of numbers (1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21 – then back down again.  In the center is a single narrow Golden thread, which signifies the Golden Mean.  Golden Mean is another name for the “Golden Section, or Golden Ratio,”  the division of a line so that the whole is to the greater part as that part is to the smaller part (i.e., in a ratio of 1 to 1/2 (√5 + 1)), a proportion that is considered to be particularly pleasing to the eye.  It is the basic concept in esthetically pleasing architecture, and the foundation of Sacred Geometry, used in the construction of the great Cathedrals and the Jerusalem Temple.  It is a ration that exists everywhere in nature, for example the spiral shell of the nautilus.

The Golden Section has great significance in many Gnostic traditions, including esoteric expressions of Freemasonry.  And Mozart was indeed a Freemason, as am I.

The point of the project is the close relationship between musical scores and weaving graphs.  The weaver and the musician are one; a genuine meeting of the Bow and Shuttle.

If you are curious, here is what the scarf “sounds like” when “played” on a piano:

The scarf is woven of mercerized cotton, and is about 8′ long by 6″ wide.

~ Will