A grandfather commissioned this piece for his grandson, Malachi, and requested this beautiful text appear in both English and Hebrew. The text is, appropriately, from the book of Malachi 3:24, and is translated as “And he [Elijah] shall turn the heart of the parents to the children and the heart of the children to their parents.”

I chose to put the English around in an unending circle on the outside, children leading to parents and parents to children. The Hebrew text is split into two pieces, circling around in each other in opposite directions while connected at their roots. I drew a repeating pattern of pomegranates in the center, which represent so many wonderful things in Jewish tradition: fruitfulness, learning, abundance, and more.

After I had the papercut designed, the client realized that he really wanted Malachi’s name in the piece. After some creative exploration, I decided to put his name, in Hebrew and English, along with his birth date in both calendars, in the four corners of the framed piece. I provided the exact shape to use to Frameworks, and they were able to cut that exact shape into the maroon suede matboard in the four corners. Calligrapher extraordinaire Noam Sienna calligraphed the four texts.

In the last photo, you can see the many physical layers created by first having a layer of glass between the papercut and the matboard, and then having the calligraphed text below the matboard itself.