Thank you letters
Dear Iris,
You made me very happy. This birthday was one of the loveliest moments of my life and your contribution was “huge”… This present, that you created with Tamara & Karina proves that affection, love and precious feelings are always very superior to material gifts.
All my love, and Vanessa’s and little Sol’s
Claudio
All my love, and Vanessa’s and little Sol’s
Claudio
Dear Iris,
When you first suggested the possibility to give a gift to my mother for her 90th birthday, I did not know that you were offering me much more than that- a unique journey of exploration into the relationship between a mother and a son and an original way to surprise someone who at her age has seen it all.
The evening when the family gathered at my home for a modest birthday celebration became one of the most memorable evenings for me and others present but most of all for my mother.
When I asked her what the embroidered words on the napkins say, at first, she did not recognize that I chose to use her own words in which she described her mother to describe her. When she realized this, tears came to her eyes.
Your sensitivity, patience and gentle craft created a heartwarming experience.
With deep gratitude,
Yaacov
The evening when the family gathered at my home for a modest birthday celebration became one of the most memorable evenings for me and others present but most of all for my mother.
When I asked her what the embroidered words on the napkins say, at first, she did not recognize that I chose to use her own words in which she described her mother to describe her. When she realized this, tears came to her eyes.
Your sensitivity, patience and gentle craft created a heartwarming experience.
With deep gratitude,
Yaacov
A gift that sees you…
We are so eager to be seen. Numerous psychologists and philosophers speak of the importance of the way in which the mother sees her child and how being seen gives the baby his own sense of actuality.
This is how I felt when I received the gift. I felt seen. Seen by you, the maker of the gift and all of those who participated. A rare and unique feeling of self-perception, how others experience, think of and know me – and so, an opportunity to look and see myself from outside-in.
It’s difficult to explain in words such a primal sensation of something that simply ‘hits the mark’. I wish all my loved ones to experience such a feeling at least once.
Noa
We are so eager to be seen. Numerous psychologists and philosophers speak of the importance of the way in which the mother sees her child and how being seen gives the baby his own sense of actuality.
This is how I felt when I received the gift. I felt seen. Seen by you, the maker of the gift and all of those who participated. A rare and unique feeling of self-perception, how others experience, think of and know me – and so, an opportunity to look and see myself from outside-in.
It’s difficult to explain in words such a primal sensation of something that simply ‘hits the mark’. I wish all my loved ones to experience such a feeling at least once.
Noa
Dearest Iris,
i am still looking and still see new layers… it makes it difficult to write about it because i can not (yet) grasp it in all it’s depth (layers) which is something which i have been experimenting with endlessly in my studies and work and therefore is so close and yet mysterious to me.
Iris you created something for me which i treasure immensely and which moved me beyond anything i can write here to you now…
i received such beautiful personal presents and or objects, stories and thoughts for my 40th birthday which will accompany me from now on, which will be always something i return to and which mark this moment in time – you have
no small part in it (on so many levels/layers) and i thank you for it.
i hope you are well,
Phillip
i am still looking and still see new layers… it makes it difficult to write about it because i can not (yet) grasp it in all it’s depth (layers) which is something which i have been experimenting with endlessly in my studies and work and therefore is so close and yet mysterious to me.
Iris you created something for me which i treasure immensely and which moved me beyond anything i can write here to you now…
i received such beautiful personal presents and or objects, stories and thoughts for my 40th birthday which will accompany me from now on, which will be always something i return to and which mark this moment in time – you have
no small part in it (on so many levels/layers) and i thank you for it.
i hope you are well,
Phillip
I got a box
And what was in it?
Colors;
Not colors for painting
I got a box
Inside were
colors.
This is what I saw, what I felt, this is what I got and this is what’s left.
Taking another look, I saw that the colors are miniature booklets
And each booklet is from a friend,
And the colors depict each friend and our friendship.
I don’t live in Israel
and my family and friends are far away
and on my 40th birthday
they were so close
I don’t know there is any closer than that
and it remained
with me
not only as a memory or keepsake
it remained
wrapped in a box
inside were
colors.
This gift filled up the most important parts for me and now I don’t need any gifts.
Orit
And what was in it?
Colors;
Not colors for painting
I got a box
Inside were
colors.
This is what I saw, what I felt, this is what I got and this is what’s left.
Taking another look, I saw that the colors are miniature booklets
And each booklet is from a friend,
And the colors depict each friend and our friendship.
I don’t live in Israel
and my family and friends are far away
and on my 40th birthday
they were so close
I don’t know there is any closer than that
and it remained
with me
not only as a memory or keepsake
it remained
wrapped in a box
inside were
colors.
This gift filled up the most important parts for me and now I don’t need any gifts.
Orit
Art & science have always been intertwined in our family life, and the way we tried to value of the gift is a reflection of the two. The gift is a creation valued as priceless (‘lo yesula bepaz’, which from the Hebrew translates as: ‘worth more than gold’) – drops of gold and tears reflected in it in disarray.
The wonderful memories of the journey as we created the gift, the giving and receiving, tears of both excitement and joy. ‘lo yesula bepaz’ is something more valuable than gold. So we divide fifty tears according to a ratio of 31 tears of gold and 19 tears of the rarest gemstone, Painite, worth more than gold.
According to the study of Shimizu and other researchers, the weight of a tear is about 12.4 grams, so the symbolic value of the gift is calculated as 31 times 12.4 grams of gold plus another 19 times 12.4 grams Painite.
Daphna’s family
The wonderful memories of the journey as we created the gift, the giving and receiving, tears of both excitement and joy. ‘lo yesula bepaz’ is something more valuable than gold. So we divide fifty tears according to a ratio of 31 tears of gold and 19 tears of the rarest gemstone, Painite, worth more than gold.
According to the study of Shimizu and other researchers, the weight of a tear is about 12.4 grams, so the symbolic value of the gift is calculated as 31 times 12.4 grams of gold plus another 19 times 12.4 grams Painite.
Daphna’s family
A two-way mirror is a magical and revealing object, for those standing on either side of the mirror. My gift is very similar in nature to a two-way mirror. The gift is a reflection of me in many shapes, angles and colors, but it also reflects everyone around who participated in its preparation. This reciprocity, this unveiling, one inside the other, is part of the gift’s uniqueness.
This self- reflection through the eyes of others has shown me things that are already familiar, yet still managed to surprise, fascinate and particularly, touched me very much. Add this to the considerable investment of thought and active involvement of all participants, especially the immediate family, and the hundreds of personal details intertwined in one gift, and you’ll understand why this gift is all so magical and heartwarming, and needs to be accompanied with a large a packet of tissues…
Daphna
This self- reflection through the eyes of others has shown me things that are already familiar, yet still managed to surprise, fascinate and particularly, touched me very much. Add this to the considerable investment of thought and active involvement of all participants, especially the immediate family, and the hundreds of personal details intertwined in one gift, and you’ll understand why this gift is all so magical and heartwarming, and needs to be accompanied with a large a packet of tissues…
Daphna
Dear Iris,
When we initially contacted you, I was familiar with your work. I knew you were exceptionally creative and that the gift we would receive at the end of the process would be unique and different.
I didn’t know, however, what to expect. I asked for a Bar Mitzvah gift for my eldest son. I didn’t know I would get so much more. While working with you on creating the gift I discovered just how every single detail is important to you, how you want to be accurate in the final result and how much our son’s experience of the gift is important to you. As if you were making the gift for your own son. And the final result – a book of special blessings written by family and close friends about the Bar Mitzvah boy, a heartwarming experience to participate in and to read.
Only when you were finished with the book and I held it in my hands, I understood why you insisted on every single detail. You assumed responsibility for the entire process. You chose the pages, so they were just right: in terms of size, weight, pleasant to the touch, beautiful, all the way to the book’s unique cover which gives the sense of sacredness, and the content, although written by different people is presented with one language. Your hand is evident in all, but discreetly. You managed to collect imagery from my son’s world and weave it masterfully as a gift for him. He was an invisible partner in the process.
Today, after having given the gift to our son, and experienced his excitement and seeing all the participants very moved by it, I look at the this beautiful thick book; I can imagine my 13 year old, in the years to come, seated in a wide chair, a rocking chair in his yard, and his grandson sitting next to him- celebrating his Bar Mitzvah. Together they will open the book and read. They will discover what this said and what that thought about their grandfather. They discover similarities between their father or their mother or the grandchild himself. This picture, of the two of them sitting there together and the book between them, makes me very happy.
Iris, thank you for all the work you invested, your attentiveness, dedication, meticulousness and the way in which you accompanied this process.
I look forward to future collaborations.
Maya
When we initially contacted you, I was familiar with your work. I knew you were exceptionally creative and that the gift we would receive at the end of the process would be unique and different.
I didn’t know, however, what to expect. I asked for a Bar Mitzvah gift for my eldest son. I didn’t know I would get so much more. While working with you on creating the gift I discovered just how every single detail is important to you, how you want to be accurate in the final result and how much our son’s experience of the gift is important to you. As if you were making the gift for your own son. And the final result – a book of special blessings written by family and close friends about the Bar Mitzvah boy, a heartwarming experience to participate in and to read.
Only when you were finished with the book and I held it in my hands, I understood why you insisted on every single detail. You assumed responsibility for the entire process. You chose the pages, so they were just right: in terms of size, weight, pleasant to the touch, beautiful, all the way to the book’s unique cover which gives the sense of sacredness, and the content, although written by different people is presented with one language. Your hand is evident in all, but discreetly. You managed to collect imagery from my son’s world and weave it masterfully as a gift for him. He was an invisible partner in the process.
Today, after having given the gift to our son, and experienced his excitement and seeing all the participants very moved by it, I look at the this beautiful thick book; I can imagine my 13 year old, in the years to come, seated in a wide chair, a rocking chair in his yard, and his grandson sitting next to him- celebrating his Bar Mitzvah. Together they will open the book and read. They will discover what this said and what that thought about their grandfather. They discover similarities between their father or their mother or the grandchild himself. This picture, of the two of them sitting there together and the book between them, makes me very happy.
Iris, thank you for all the work you invested, your attentiveness, dedication, meticulousness and the way in which you accompanied this process.
I look forward to future collaborations.
Maya