Sari Srulovitch (b. 1964) As the Scarlet Thread: Shabbat Set

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“A Shabbat napkin embroidered by my mother for her dowry, a box of smelling tobacco that is opened as Shabbat begins, a booklet with the text of “A Woman of Valor” (a chapter from Proverbs traditionally sung on Friday night) – all these memories run “as the scarlet thread” through my life, sculpting my personality. The elements of my Shabbat set emerge from my ingrained memory of the simple purity of these ceremonies: the candlesticks, Kiddush cup, spice box, candle-holder for Havdala, and the challah cover. The Shabbat cycle accompanied by these objects represents my personal journey of reminiscence and separation.
To begin, I wanted to “quote” my mother’s embroidery and I thus researched the methods and materials. All the silver pieces were made from leftover materials, which were flattened and processed in different techniques until they were transformed into memory-keeping objects. The challah cover, in which the set itself is carried, is made of white fabric on which I used red thread to embroider all the verbs used to describe the woman’s work in “A Woman of Valor.” One row is in regular script and the other side a mirror version, and together they illustrate an entire life cycle.