Jewish Weaving

Let the designs below stimulate your creativity. Note the different colors, weaving styles, and atarahs (can be added on or woven in as in the last example). Call to discuss with the weaver what type of design would best suit your beliefs, traditions, and personality.

Please click a thumbnail graphic for a larger image.

	35” x 75”. Hemp. Rabbi Fred’s tallit is woven in green, blue, and purple hemp with an inlay of naturally colored organic cotton. See “environmental tallit” page for details.

20” x 75”. Silk. Cantor Rachel’s tallit has water imagery, as shown by the waves and the subtle naturally colored swirls of the atarah.	30” x 70”. Silk. Ezzie’s tallit reflects the gold, blue, and orange colors of his school on beautiful natural silk.	30” x 70”. Silk. Polly’s love of theater comes out in the comedy and tragedy masks on the atarah and corners of her tallit.

30” x 70”, silk. Zack’s tallit included original artwork of a dove flying over a rainbow, planks of Noah’s ark, and the ocean. On the opposite side, he had a globe with “Save the Planet, Recycle, Go Green, Go Habs, with three quotes, including one from Dr. Seuss’ Lorax, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” See photo to the right as well.	(Continuation of photo and description to the left)	30” x 70”, silk-wool. Rowan’s tallit subtly moves through the colors of the rainbow. Her neckband features her name amidst rowan branches.

30” x 70”. Silk. Lily’s lavender tallit was filled with lilies, swirls, and olive branches, as designed by her mother and sister. The broken twill weave highlighted the embroidery with a textured background.	60” x 70”, fine wool. Heller requested images embroidered on the neckband and side of her tallit that were taken from the katuba that her mother in law painted for her and her husband. The embroidery was done with shading to keep the overall effect subtle. See photo to the right as well.	(Continuation of photo and description to the left)


70" x 80", 100% silk. For his son's Bar Mitzvah, Abraham wanted silk tallit that depicted scenes from the Torah. He used images from Philip Ratner's stunning Ratner's Bible. This is of Abraham and the strangers.	60" x 70", 100% silk. An embroidered image of Philip Ratner's Noah and the Ark from the Ratner Bible beautifies this tallit.	70" x 80", 100% silk. Abraham and his son, Isaac (image from Philip Ratner's bible) in honor of Abraham's son, Isaac.

70" x 80", 100% silk. Philip ratner's Daniel and the Lions beautifies this 100% silk tallit.	30" x 70", silk/wool. Jurri wanted a Japanese motif for his tallit, celebrating the quiet aesthetics of Japan with the with traditions of Judaism.	70" x 80", fine wool. Jami surprised her husband with this dramatic black and cream tallit, inscribed with the names of their children.

25" x 70". Chenille. Sally wanted a subtle and soft tallit. The white of the background plays beautifully off the lilac and grey of the banded motif.	25" x 70". Silk/wool. Hannah's love of moose is celebrated in this tallit. The line of moose substitute for stripes. An outline of a pink moose quietly adorns the center of the back of the tallit.	70" x 80". Fine wool. The atarah of this special tallit is woven out of five shades of silk to mimic the complexity of the Western Wall. Eighteen of Sam's heroes are embroidered along the "bricks" of the wall.

25" x 75", silk-wool. Crystal rhinestones adorn Alex's pink tallit. She paired her tallit with a coordinating square head covering in lieu of the traditional kippah.	30" x 75" silk/wool. Bryan came with a beautiful drawing of what he wanted his tallit to look like, including textured stripes of orange, red, and yellow against the blues of the sky. He wanted elaborate fringe and an atarah that said “If you help one person, you help all of humanity.”	38" x 72", 100% silk. Joannie had “secrets” woven into her son’s tallit: threads from a baby blanket and from crib sheets. The atarah was sewn from her son’s overalls from when he was a toddler. The silver stripe represents Joannie, the three stripes the men in her life: her two sons and husband.

76" x 70", silk-wool. This tallit reflects Harold’s love of Shabbat: braided havdalah candles (braided out of ultra-suede), challah, and Shabbat candles on a grey background.	25" x 70", chenille and cotton. Marni wanted a tallit that was as lovely as the color of a rabbit’s fur. The interlacing of cotton and chenille produced a subtle texture that gives the tallit a warm glow.	40" x 70". Lambswool. Greg wanted a tallit woven out of 100% lambswool, shorn from a sheep under one year of age (a difficult thing to find in the US where most lambswool is spun from older sheep’s wool). One of my weavers, Karen, painstakingly dyed the lambswool with natural indigo. Greg’s five children are depicted with the tallit’s asymmetrical stripes: three on one end, two on the other.

24" x 64", wool-silk. Reena’s tallit is all about rich colors: deep burgundy accented with white and black stripes. The wool-silk blend gives it body with the beautiful drape of silk.	60" x 70" wool/silk and novelty yarn. Dave wanted his tallit to reflect his passion for deep sea diving. The tallit tries to capture the depth and intensity of the blues Dave sees thousands of feet below the surface of the water and color of the hot Arizona sand above it.	25" x 70", 100% silk. The challenge of Laura’s tallit was to weave something out of silk that was dainty enough to look feminine but strong enough to hold Laura’s needlepointed corner pieces and neckband. Thin, lengthwise stripes woven out of Laura’s extra needlepoint floss highlighted her work.

30" x 70", zephyr and metallics. Silver, bronze, and copper threads along with indigo, red, and purple grace this tallit as they did the garments of the mishkan. Black stripes set off the colors.	35" x 80", silk. This coat of many colors was chosen by a bride for her groom to reflect the many dimensions of marriage and the variety of colors they will encounter together as a couple.	30" x 75", silk. The stripes on this tallit are subtly woven with a double density of silk, providing texture as well as luster to the shawl. The accented stripe carries the motif of the atarah.
36" x 75", silk-wool. Don designed this beautiful Moses for his grandson. The Moses is embroidered on top of three colored stripes that depict the colors of the Mishkan.	30" x 40", cotton-wool. Debbie choose a soft cotton, hypoallergenic wool for a baby blanket tallit, in a weave that is soft enough for a baby and sturdy enough to function as a tallit as the baby matures into adulthood.	30" x 70", silk-wool, with gold embroidery. Don wanted his grandson's tallit to be as grand as the lions of Judah. Jewishweaving created the cloth out of Don's drawing.

18" x 68", silk-wool and silk. Terry wanted a blend of three shades of pink that also incorporated a striped pattern. This tallit employs a thick/thin weave to underscore the different textures of those shades offset by bands of medium pink for the striped edges.	25" x 65", silk-wool. Shelley wanted muted, subtle colors for her tallit. Her pink and grey tones set each other off beautifully and subtly against the natural white background.	20" x 70", silk. The inspiration for Susan's tallit was a bit of ribbon that Susan wanted woven into her tallit. Threads from baby blankets, chuppahs, curtains, etc. are often woven into the body or fringes of tallit.

25" x 70", raw and reeled silk. This tallit used highly contrasting texture, the earthy quality of raw, natural silk with the highly lusterous pink reeled silk, to show the transition from childhood to adulthood, and sometimes back again.	42” x 66”, heavy wool. Stephen’s tallit was conceived with and inspired by an intensely deep and personal spirituality. The red is the sparkle of Friday night wine when the candlelight catches the glass. The off-white the color of knowledge, and hope, and prayer.	30” x 70”, cotton. Leslie used the atarah of his very textured tallit, to promote the Reconstructionist idea that Jews are “one people among peoples, all of whom are God’s people” instead of the traditional notion as Jews as the chosen ones.

30” x 70”, rayon, Brian’s requirement for a tallit was that the color move from silver to black and that it shine. Rayon was chosen to create a tallit that really shines and has an extremely high-tech look and feel.	25” x 70”, silk-wool. Abe’s tallit has beautiful shades of blue, and is adorned with an atarah inscribed with a quote from his Bar Mitzvah haftarah.	26” x 90”, reeled silk. A row of playful cats take the place of stripes in this very feminine tallit. A white tabby cat sits in the middle of the back of the tallit, in juxtaposition to the silver, playful cats on the ends.

25” x 76”, silk-wool. Instead of solid stripes, Michael’s tallit has braids resembling the border of one of the mosaics of the floor of the ancient synagogue of Hammath Tiberius. The atarah has an inscription:from Pirkei Avot.	25” x 70”, silk-wool. Jakob joked that he wanted something so shimmering that it would sparkle as much as he did when he read his haftorah. His tallit combines black with unusual stripes of silver and turquoise.	20” x 65”, silk-wool. Ellen is all about purple and blue, so her tallit has lots of stripes in the blue/purple family, offset by a white lacy body and thin silver stripes.

20” x 70”, silk-wool. Joy wanted something black (she only wears black) that was as elegant as an evening stole. She chose a black lacy tallit with a touch of gold.	30” x 70”,t-shirts. This tallit was made out of recycled t-shirts of students of a religious school in honor of the school’s director.	25" x 70". Chenille and cotton. Sandra wanted to have two distinct textures, cotton and chenille, play off one another in this colorful and slightly heavy tallit.

35” x 70”, silk-wool. Terry wanted a tallit that matched the colors of the Tabernacle: bright red, crimson, and indigo, with highlights of gold and black.	30” x 66”, heavy wool. Black, white, and blood red yarn create this tallit modeled after the one that Charlton Heston wore in the movie, The Ten Commandments. The tallit has a scaled down version of the same motif.	64” x 74”, fine wool. Steve chose a very subtle but powerful design: black wool with cream stripes, reminiscent of the black tallit of the Yemenite.

56” x 72”, rayon chenille. This tallit is unique both in texture (its made of soft chenille) and color (it is jet black with stripes of silver and bright lilac). A coordinating bukhara yarmulkah and lined tallit bag make it a striking set.	30” x 70”, silk-wool. This tallit boasts an overall patterning instead of stripes. Its soft herringbone motif is offset by an all white atarah.	25” x 65”, silk-wool. Jay wanted the pencil thin stripes of this tallit to marry traditional designs with a modern flair.

22”x75”, silk. Three shades of pink adorn Gail’s tallit, made of out brightly dyed silk.	20” x 65”, silk-woo. Nico’s tallit is covered in stripes of five different shades of blue, accented with silver and gold.	17” x 72”, pearl cotton. Post-September 11th, Mark ordered a tallit that is a take on the American flag; red, white and blue stripes on the body of the tallit, and then a field of blue with white Stars of David on the atarah, all out of washable 3/2 pearl cotton.

30” x 70”, silk-wool. This tallit is also an updated version of traditional blue stripes on a white background.	20” x 90”, silk. For his granddaughter’s Bat Mitzvah, Don supplied a beautiful sketch of his vision of a tallit: a gold swirl on pink tallit with stripes of the Tabernacle to show the wonder and depth of his granddaughter.	22” x 72”, silk-wool. Robin’s tallit has thin stripes of blue and gold, complemented by fringes tied in a macramé pattern.

20" x 70" silk-wool. Claire wanted a very "quiet" tallit of white with pale lavender and grey. She chose a single band of a "dice" pattern, accented with a thin stripe of lavender.	25” x 70”, silk-wool. Sherry wanted a solid navy blue tallit, no stripes, but with an interesting pattern woven in, to spotlight her exquisite atarah and corner patches that she needlepointed for her son.	30" x 70" silk-wool. This tallit is glorifies the splendor of the tabernacle's colors.

20” x 70”, pearl cotton. Vivien’s tallit plays with geometric shapes: rows of tiny circles forming rectangular stripes. To make it even more interesting, the atarah was woven in, rather than sewn on as a separate strip.	Silk/wool matzah cover – the perfect addition for the Passover holidays!