The Eternal Jew's Tale, Part 2.1

I have begun Part II of The Atternen Jewz Tael. Part I is the Eternal Jew’s experiences with Jesus and the 4 time travelers who have wandered into Jerusalem and witness Jesus’ crucifixion. I have only posted 2 excerpts from Part I, altho I plan on posting more. However, here is the opening scene of Part II, in which the Jew recounts his wanderings after leaving Jerusalem.

The Aternen Jewz Tael, II

Jezes died an so mennee annuther
Werl redeemer, werl assalen,
Them az haks at the narrellee rooten
An overgroeth, the siklee vien
An poizen vien. But shooten evver
Renu. Tree ov Life it iz

No, the Lor doent keep ar Hevvenz simpel.
That poizennee vien a groethen an kleengen
Tu the Tree a Life. Its part a the sap.

Mezzuza completed

On Feb. 1, 2011 I posted 3 images of a mezzuza I was working on. Here are a few more images, showing the stages of work up to completion.






















About half the goldwork done, showing my agate burnisher and a chisel.






















Another image, a little further along, with the leather covered pad for holding the gold leaf, some cut leaf, and the ceramic palette with special glue.






















Almost done. With brushes and fine cutting tools.






















Complete. Without good tweezers, don't even think about doing this.






















A gift for my son on his birthday. May he go from strength to strength.

Memories of Jesus,2

Continuing from my post of 12/30/10...

The Atternen Jewz Tael

"I heerz thay kot him in khoel ha-mowaed*
                         * The 4 intermediate days of Passover
"An taeks him owt tu the killen hill.
"He wok by my tinee shumaken shop
"In a rundown shuek for traedzmen like me.
"Kondukten by pikerz an sum rowdee frenz.
"Wen I seez him an breeng him a kup a dreenk.
"But sor depress he jes shake iz hed.

Work begins on a Mezzuza

I have begun work on a mezzuza, technically a box that holds a parchment with 3 prayers inscribed on it. The parchment is the holy object and the mezzuza is just meant to protect it, but to do honor to the parchment (and thus, indirectly, to honor God), and to extend the virtue of the tradition through the act of adding beauty, the mezzuza is often highly decorated. A mezzuza is placed on the frame of a door to sanctify a house and to protect it. Minimally, the main entrance to the house should have a mezzuza, but many houses, like ours, have mezzuzot (plural) leading into all the main rooms.

Many mezzuzot are made of sterling silver, but I make them out of wood. I've used driftwood, mahogany, and exotics. This one is mahogany. Here are 3 images.
The first is simply the raw wood, cut to the right size:











The next step is to begin carving. Rather than a traditional image, I decided to simply accentuate the dramatic grain of the wood.











Now, some gold work:













I'll post images of the completed project, when it's ready.