Indian Couture along with Balmain and Valentino, stunning!

Anju Modi and Manish Arora

Valentino and Blamain

Stunning together, who's who?

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to the Ladies and Gents of Brandywine:

What a delightful weekend I had with the EGA chapter of Brandywine!  The class was so much fun! 

 

Thank you for the hospitality and for the willingness to go on this color journey with me!

and now for Monday...

xo

Orna

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A brief list of random thoughts.

A brief list of random thoughts:

1.  Tomorrow I join 17 others to take a journey into their color worlds.  This two day class is always an amazing experience for me. 

It usually begins with a room full of faces that seem apprehensive, unsure, skeptical and at times downright pouting.  I completely understand, they have decided to trust me and join a class that promises to teach color but refuses to use a color wheel.  A class for which preparation is to collect stones, feathers, fabric, beads, paper, inspired by a magazine photograph.  Weird. 

It usually ends with a room full of excited, confident, open and at times downright jubilant faces.  What more can a teacher ask for?

2.  Overnight, (I swear it happened overnight), Nomi decided to try out the terrible twos. She must have got her hands on some sort of Parenting book and she turned into a walking NO! machine.  What I love about this?  As a parent I would probably be crying, as a grandparent it makes me laugh.  She is so cute when she yells NO!

3.  Nina has a new love; Folk dancing.  She discovered it in Jerusalem this past summer.  Right outside the stone walls of the Old City we came across a large group of adults dancing to folk music from all over the world.  Most of these people were our age and older, and seemed to be familiar with the dances and the beautiful music.  I noticed Nina moving to the music.  Next thing, there she was, grabbing hands on both sides and joining into the circle of dancers.  Her head down watching the feet of her neighbors she danced so beautifully and effortlessly, catching on to the steps at record speed.  She was glowing.  So, we came back home and I looked into finding a folk dancing group she could dance with and found one in Philadelphia.  During the summer months they dance outside, on the upper terrace of the Art Museum, at the top of the Rocky steps.  It's beautiful out there and with the folk music in the air and my daughter dancing with such elegance, it is quite the view!

4. I've been noticing plaid in fashion everywhere.  So I went investigating and Googled plaid fashion 2014.  I was right, it's a trend. 

Which made me feel that my design Contemporary Tartan was a trail blazer!

5. I noticed the plaid when I went looking for some nice dresses for Nina.  Being 12, going on 13, she has a year full of Bat and Bar Mitzvahs to go to, which posses a problem when you have a tomboy daughter who HATES dresses.  

 

 

Nina might go for plaid in a dress, making it less "girlie". These are just a few examples, (Free People).  I've brought home and taken back unprecedented numbers of dresses for her to try on, with no luck.  I'm about to head out the door for my next return/search expedition.  I need to make it fast so I can complete my packing for the workshop I'm giving tomorrow. (See 1.)

We'll talk soon!
xo

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How it goes...

The two "Big-Time" Jewish holidays (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), came and went.  There was so much cooking and baking going on around here, I don't know when I'll be able to look at chicken soup again without feel nauseous.  

From the book...

I mixed things up by trying many a new recipe from a most fabulous book,  Ottolenghi The Cookbook. The Sour Cherry Amaretti cookies are to die for.  I gave the recipe to my friend Dalia. She called the other day to tell me that she was upset with me, she made the cookies, they came out amazing, she kept eating them and finally decided to put them in the freezer so she wouldn't eat them anymore.  But that's not why she called, she said, she just wanted to tell me that the cookies are very tasty frozen as well!  Sorry Dalia...

I've spent many hours at the computer writing instructions for my new color class design.  So many hours, and I'm still not done.  It's such a long process and demands so much attention to details.  Let me explain: below you can see a tiny section of the design, probably not more than 1.5" x 1.5" in size.  This tiny section is more than 3 pages long in the instruction book!

The written pages go through proof-reading and style-adjusting and marking and marking until they are ready to move on to my stitcher-gals, who will painstakingly proof stitch the design.

So, back to work until I find an excuse to get up and move away from the computer.  In about 2 hours doing laundry will seem like a fun activity.


PS -
I also wanted to give you a teeny, tiny peek at a new design I've started.  It will be an Ikat pattern.  I love the interesting combinations of shapes in Ikat patterns so I'll be working on a few stitched ones for you and me.

 

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Go ahead, make my day!

 Thank you to...

 Heidi's leather bag with Squaredance insert.  Genius, Heidi, just genius!

Kim's Flower Cuff with metal insert.  Such beautiful work, Kim!  Thanks for the metal inserts!!

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Prep and Prep and Prep!

Since yesterday I have been prepping...

in the Kitchen for the Holidays -

in the Studio for Color Classes -

and on the Web for inspiration -

Jazmin Berakha

Kimika

Emily Barletta

What have you been doing?

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I miss my needles!

It's been seven long weeks since I've had my needlepoint fix!  I'm still recuperating from the trip, (3 AM is the new 10 AM around here), I've unpacked everything as of this morning, but still have laundry, and then there are all the missed episodes of "The Killing" to watch.  Today Nina and I are traveling to see Nomi!  Now that overrides everything.  Then we have the very early Jewish holidays coming up next week, and we are going to the US Open on Tuesday. Whew. 

Still, I miss my needles.  I will be back to you, my delicate #24s,  very soon, I promise!

In the meantime, Nina took some wonderful Photoshop classes at summer camp in Israel and has done some amazing camera/photoshop work!  Here are some of her creations, (so proud!!).

Nina is making my work sing!!

a study in Israeli ants...

Nina's inspirational message

I love how she sees simple beautiful moments.

Dancers glowing in the dark

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A highlight of my visit... Ayala Gordon

I missed you!

Looking back on the last 6 weeks, I see many highlights.  One of my new "art-online-friends", Shulli Goitein, took me on a day trip to Jerusalem.  We were going up to see the end of the year exhibit of the graduating class at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design.  But before that we were to meet at her aunt's home in a wonderful neighborhood of Jerusalem called the German Colony, "Moshava Germanit" established by the German Templer Sect.  It is a charming neighborhood with old stone houses and beautiful vegetation all around. 

Shulli's aunt is Ayala Gordon, one of the pioneers of art in the burgeoning State of Israel.  She established the Youth Wing of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. A curator, educator and author, she worked at bringing the love and appreciation of art to the youth of Israel.

Here she is with a class of children circa 1960

We were to meet at Ayala's home and see her fiber art, stories of her family done in mixed media with a strong base of embroidery and fiber applications.  I arrived to a beautiful spread for lunch, a typical Israeli meal of pita bread, salad, cheeses and pickled vegetables.  Ayala was a delightful host, sitting me down at her table as if I was a regular weekly guest. We ate, chatted and enjoyed the cool breeze from the open windows of this stone home.  After the meal we went to see her studio behind the house.  The door opened to walls of art, beautiful storytelling using threads, fabric, paint, sculpture, separately and all together.  Breathtaking!

I was so honored to be invited to meet Ayala Gordon, a true highlight of my trip.

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...continued: Why can't we have these??

I can't say for sure that these are not sprinkled in public parks around the country, but I can say for sure that I hadn't seen them till I came here.  Free, fun, attractive public fitness equipment are available in neighborhood parks as well as the large city parks.  So cool!! (and no more excuses...)

an orthodox boy using the elliptical 

xoxo

O

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