Collection:  The Five Scrolls

Other in the set:  Lamentations: Chapters 4-5

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• Needlework by Ilana Limoni

• Illustrations based on images found online, including:

  • ​a model of the Temple, found here

  • an adaptation of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s logo

• Text from the Complete Hebrew Bible found here

• Completed in 2017

• It took about ten months to make

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Materials and technique:

• Petit Point Canvas made from cotton with an 18 mesh mono weave (i.e., 324 stitches per square inch)

• Threads are silk, cotton, wool and metallic fibers

• Technique is a variety of stitches

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Size:

• H: 86½” (219.7 cm)    W: 37½” (95.3 cm) (unframed)

 

Process in general:

The first phase of creating a scroll panel entailed Ilana free form stitching in petit point the Hebrew text onto the canvas, referencing a graph of the Hebrew alphabet she created. Chapters and verses start at the margin, with a new chapter also signified by a larger first letter.  Since Hebrew is written from right to left and the verses have different number of words, the left side of each panel had blank spaces to be filled with drawings. Also, Ilana reserved the top of the canvas for a significant scene. As her longtime artist was no longer available, Ilana asked her daughter Tami to recreate illustrations found online.  In the second phase, Ilana stitched the artwork and then she covered the remainder of the canvas with a background.  Additionally, Ilana designed the border and used the same one for both panels in this set.

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Other comments:

Since Lamentations is read on Tisha B’Av (the somber day in Jewish history marking both times that the holy Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed), the artwork depicted on this panel includes flames engulfing the Western Wall and a model of a reconstructed new Temple.

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