Pendants 3

This is the first time I have attempted making jewelry using Sculpey. Those who read this blog probably already know Sculpey is a crafting clay that you form and then bake to make your project permanent. I found it very easy to work. I basically broke off a piece of the clay and used a round plastic rod to roll it to the thickness I wanted much like making pie crust. I followed this by folding over the top edge of the clay to form a channel to pass a cord through. Then I broke off another piece and rolled it into very thin ropes. I used those ropes to form my design on the flattened piece of clay. I made three of these to be used as pendants. Then into the oven they went. Lastly I painted my pendants with a variety of acrylic paints and threaded each with a cord for wearing.

Please forgive me but I was so intent on making my project I forgot to take pictures of the process. And so, I only have pictures of the finished projects to show you.

I found that metallic and iridescent paints looked the best for this project.

 The following two pictures are of the same pendant. However I added a little rhinestone to the bottom of my motif shown in the last picture.

I could definitely use more practice at forming my designs but I thoroughly enjoyed making these regardless.

A Mezuzah For Indoors

Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

Deuteronomy 6:5 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

Deuteronomy 6:6 And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart:

Deuteronomy 6:7 And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.

Deuteronomy 6:8 And you shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

Deuteronomy 6:9 And you shall write them on the posts of your house, and on your gates.

With these words from the Torah in mind I designed a mezuzah to be placed inside our home next to our bedroom door.

First a size was selected and a pattern made accordingly. The shape of the mezuzah was cut out and adhered to the cream colored inner border with a heat bonding material. Then it was decorated with metallic craft paint and glitter glue. That in turn was sewn onto the first layer of the blue background.  A slit was made in the second layer of the background for a place to insert The Shema. I made the three little tabs at the bottom each with two layers of felt and did a blanket stitch around the edges and placed them between the two background layers. The two background layers were then joined with a blanket stitch edging. Finishing touches were adding the beads at the bottom of the tabs and sewing a ring on the back to hang it by.

The Tree Of Life

Gen 2:9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

In deciding what project to prepare for this weeks blog entry I chose a symbol from last week's Torah portion...the Tree of Life. Trees in general are one of my favorite subject matter when it comes to my crafting and art work. This week I opted for another mug rug, also one of my favorite things to make.

For the tree I chose a commercial stencil from my stash. Various acrylic paints were used and applied to a piece of linen fabric. I chose a fancy piece of cotton fabric framed in a glitzy border fabric. This was layered with heat reflecting batting and backed and framed with plain red cotton. Another mug rug finished!

Partake of the Tree of Life and be blessed!

Simchat Torah Is Here!

It took some thought to decide what kind of a project I should post this week. I've been looking at videos on YouTube of Simchat Torah celebrations. The term Simchat Torah means "Joy of Torah" and these celebrations are certainly joyous! The Torah scroll is the center piece of this celebration and there is so much dancing and singing around the written Word of YHWH that a second theme can be introduced to our crafting.

This year I decided on making another little decorator pillow with a dancing theme.

I try to use crafting materials I already have and this was no exception. I chose some purple and white satins and cut them to the desired size. The white satin was applied to the purple with heat bonding web and outlined with glitter glue to seal the raw fabric. The words were written with a gel pen and Simchat Torah was written with glitter glue. When the glitter glue was dry (this took some time to dry...be patient) I then went to the sewing machine and sewed the back of the pillow to the front. A shoe shape was cut out from glitter encrusted canvas left over from a Purim project and glued on the pillow. The last touch was adding ribbons gathered together.

Now put on your dancing shoes, turn up the music and dance around the precious Word of our King. Celebrate! with Lenny and Varna singing Simchat Torah.

Have You Thought Of Doing This During Sukkot?

SUKKOT IS HERE!

Lev 23:39 Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast to the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.

 Lev 23:40 And you shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.

Lev 23:41 And you shall keep it a feast to the LORD seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: you shall celebrate it in the seventh month.

Lev 23:42 You shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths:

Lev 23:43 That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.


I've found many sites on the internet that display different ideas for Sukkot...decorations for their succahs, recipes and crafts. Many people invite family, friends and neighbors to join in the celebration. Taking videos of the festivities is a great idea but, for those who don't have access to a video camera, the next best thing is taking still photos.

I thought an interesting idea would be to print up those pictures and give little albums containing those photos to your guests as a memento of these Feast Days. So off to the craft stores I went in search of supplies.

I found the holographic star paper (card stock weight) for the cover, the blue with white stars paper and the heavy weight black construction paper for the inside pages.

I decided on the size of my album and cut the paper the appropriate size but twice as wide to accommodate folding it in half. Then I proceeded to measure out where to 'sew' the pages together. I shared this technique on a past post...http://asweetsavor.blogspot.com/2013/03/bookbinding-and-amidah-prayer.html

The holographic paper I used for the album cover suggested the theme of my album 'Sukkot Under the Stars 2013'.

I just can't resist adding embellishments to my creations. I finished the album with fringy yarn, sequins and beads. All that's needed to to attach my photos with self adhesive picture corners.

Chag Samaech to all my viewers. Have a wonderful Sukkot celebration!

Yom Kippur

A song for Yom Kippur.

May your name be inscribed in the Book of  Life.

Happy Yom Teruah!