Family Workshops

During these strange days of COVID, are you looking for a great way to spend an afternoon with your family nourishing everyone’s creativity and Jewish spirit? I’m adapting my popular Your Name in Lights! workshop for video-conferencing with me in my studio, and a few families, separately around their family kitchen- or project tables, or all together, if you’re all in the same “pod”. I’ve conducted Your Name in Lights! to happy groups of adults and kids in schools, conferences and private homes—in fact, at Limmud UK, for each of two sessions I literally had to close the door when each of the 50 desks in the classroom had been grabbed! There’s another, brand-new workshop here too…and more to come.

YOUR NAME IN LIGHTS!  Debra Band offers a hands-on workshop in manuscript illumination, preceded by a 10-minute magic carpet ride across the history of beautiful Jewish books from the dawn of writing to the internet age. Participants will learn basic gilding technique, creating a miniature illuminated manuscript of their first or last name, in Hebrew or English, in color and gold paint. Prior to the session, please think about elements of your life or interests that you would like to reflect in your design. I’ll provide the supply list, all of which will be easily available by mail-order. 60-90 minutes, ages 12 to adult. Designed for 2-3 families, together, or separately by video chat. Questions? Contact me!

CREATE YOUR JEWISH FAMILY CREST: A FAMILY WORKSHOP. In this 90-minute program, the whole family (parents and children ages 6+) has a chance to take part in working together to create a piece of artwork reflecting their own Jewish family values to hang in their home. In introducing the workshop, Debra discusses how to design artwork that expresses abstract concepts through symbolic imagery, and provides a source-sheet of verses highlighting a set of sample Jewish values. The values on the source-sheet draw upon Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) and the Thirteen Middot of Rabbi Israel Salanter that form the basis of the Mussar Movement among other sources; this list provides a starting point for identifying values, and families are also encouraged to introduce their own ideas. Each family works together at a single table. Parents and children discuss and plan the work together, with one person sketching out the plan of the overall design. Each participant creates a single piece picturing on a single value idea, and all the pieces fit together in puzzle fashion on an 18”x 24” mat-board. I’ll provide a supply list costing approximately $20/family (including mat-board). Designed for 2-3 families, together, or separately by video chat. Questions? Contact me!