The Colors of Life - By Carly Lesser (Ketzirah)

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8.5″ Diameter
Stitches:  Chain, French Knots, Sheaf Stitch, Seed Stitch, Algerian Eyelets, Straight Stitch, Stem Stitch
Materials: unbleached muslin, cotton DMC pearl cotton #5, Caron Watercolours Variegated Pearl Cotton  wooden hoop finished with amber shellac

I have woven the fabric of your life.
What you do with it is up to you.
You can create beauty anywhere — anytime.
Even the ugliest experiences can be shaped to bring beauty into the world.
How will you use what you have been given?

I began this piece in December 2009.  I drew the basic design the morning I was leaving for the airport to bury my sister-Kohenet Yosefa Rafaela Gypsy-Jill Greenberg-Strouss.  This piece, from the beginning, was meant to be a tribute to her life.  She was wild and colorful, in every moment.  She was also troubled and messy.  She was authentically herself in all things, and impacted every person she met.  This sounds like something you say about everyone after they die, but at her funeral I learned it was true about her — like no one I had ever met.

I knew her for less than five years, but her impact on my life will probably resonate for the next 50 — or however many years I’m given.  I learned from how she lived.  I learned from how she died.  I learned from who and how she loved.

If you are interested in purchasing this piece, please contact me at peelapom (@) gmail.com.

Purchase a replica print that will benefit the Yosefa’s Colors scholarship fund.