Eight Nights of Chanukkah

One of the delights of being part of a mixed marriage is getting to celebrate the holidays from both traditions, and that is particularly enjoyable during a year like this where we get to light the Chanukkah candles at Christmas Eve dinner.  We enjoyed a double festivity last night!

Part of the fun of Chanukkah for me this year has been the artists swap I did with the other Jewish artists in the Altered Workshop.  The eight of us each made eight gifts, and sent one to everyone in the group.  Each night we open the package we received from one of the artists.  So far, I have received a beautiful necklace, a gorgeous art doll=pincushion, and an incredible hand-dyed ribbon scarf.

Last night was the night for everyone to open my gifts, and I was hoping they wouldn't disappoint.  Everyone seems to like them, and FINALLY, I can go ahead and show y'all pictures, without fear of ruining the surprise!

I made fabric collages, using the theme "A Woman of Valor" (from the Old Testament, see here) and then turned them into little herbal sachets.

Bowlful

Lots

Pink

I used a mixture of herbs from my garden, mostly lavendar, that I cut and dried the day we decided upon the swap, so that they were all ready.  The scent was overwhelming, but nice, and hopefully will scent a drawer up very well.

I scanned a few of them that didn't photograph well before I sewed them into sachets.

Woman of valor4

Woman of valor5

The backs were done using hand-dyed fabric, and were all variations of this one.

Back1

This was a fun swap — is, as we are still going for three more nights.  I've enjoyed it and I hope to revisit the "useful fabric collage" concept a lot more next year.

5 thoughts on “Eight Nights of Chanukkah

  1. These are so lovely. And I enjoyed reading more about the Woman of Valor. Thank you for creating such a thoughtful gift. I can’t believe there are only two nights left! 🙁

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