Books are a decorative item for all intents and purposes. THERE'S EVEN A CATEGORY CALLED COFFEE TABLE BOOK THAT OFFERS BEAUTIFUL BOOKS TO PUT ON THE COFFEE TABLE IN THE LIVING ROOM. Have you ever thought about including Bibles in this category? It's true that they're not completely connected to it, but in recent years we can see a trend in which more emphasis is placed on Judaica items when an innovative and contemporary line is introduced to them, which takes them out of their own box and turns them into a decorative item that will fit well into modern homes as well.
In honor of the holiday of Matan Torah, we chose three designers who graduated from Shenkar who received the design of the cover of a Bible - Noy Ben Porat, Yaron Shmerkin and Anouk Yosabashvili. The designers drew their inspirations from central stories and motifs from the world of Torah, including the story of creation, the chariot, the splitting of the Red Sea, from darkness to light, the twelve tribes and more. The design process included the use of natural diamonds and combined various work techniques.
The collection includes six covers of Bibles. The project was initiated by Or Yahalom, a company founded by Ronen Priber, the company's CEO, and his businessman partner, Ari Wolf, and managed by Gillian Golan, a business consultant, and Orina Ferrante, development manager for senior lecturers in Shenkar's jewelry design department.
Chariot Bible
Designer: Noy Ben Porat, product designer, graduate of the Department of Jewelry Design, Shenkar.
The design concept and sources of inspiration: Merkava has a unique shape and structure that thinkers from the world of Judaism are controversial about their purpose and meaning. The Chariot Bible incorporates six diamonds leaving the letter V, which belongs to a small group of letters that make up Jehovah's name. The chariot Bible is studded with natural diamonds with 48 carat points.
A word from the designer: "The movement of the rays of light between the diamond and the Star of David was to me like the Spirit of God touching man."
Inspiration board during cover development, Chariot Bible,
Red Sea Bible
Designer: Yaron Shmerkin, product designerandgraduate of the Department of Jewelry Design, Shenkar.
The design concept and sources of inspiration: The splitting of the Red Sea is one of the most formative events in human and Jewish consciousness in which it is a defining moment of the victory of spirit over matter, control over the forces of nature.
On the cover are 45 diamonds that add up to one exact carat of diamonds, a sign of M.H. and letters of redemption.
The designer's word: "Diamonds as a flow of water, each individual as a drop of water and all of them together converge into one flow."
Inspiration board during cover development, Red Sea Bible,
Red Sea Bible cover, designed by Yaron Shmerkin for Or Yahalom Company, Photo: Simulation: Or Yahalom Studio
The Bible of Creation
Designer: Anouk Yusabashvili, a graduate of Shenkar's Textile Department.
Design concept and sources of inspiration: The foreground of the work depicts the celestial bodies that reflect the light of creation. The back of the piece depicts man, a point of light in infinite space.
Fifteen diamonds of various sizes adorn the front of the work as a minyan "ya", one of the names of the Creator, expressing together the entire creation. On the back of the book is one diamond that expresses the lonely person in front of her.
A word from the designer: "The divine, the creation, the stars, man, the diamond—in all of them I saw light."
Creation Bible cover, designed by Yaron Shmerkin for Or Yahalom Company, Photo: Simulation: Or Yahalom Studio
Infinity Bible
Designer: Yaron Shmerkin, product designerandgraduate of the Department of Jewelry Design, Shenkar.
The design concept and sources of inspiration: The light that spreads through space is trapped in an endless circle of transitions between the two worlds, with an emphasis on the number eight that symbolizes in the Jewish world the concept of "above nature".
88 diamonds set on the front of the book. The back of the book contains twenty-two diamonds and a total of one carat book and thirty-two diamond dots.
A word from the designer: "There was an attempt to capture the primal light of creation."
Infinity Bible cover, designed by Yaron Shmerkin for Or Yahalom Company, Photo: Simulation: Diamond Light Studio
Bible from darkness to light
Designer: Noy Ben Porat, product designer, graduate of Shenkar's jewelry design department.
The design concept and sources of inspiration: One of nature's most wonderful creations – the diamond, is made of carbon molecules that, through pressure and temperature deep in the Earth, crystallize into an "inner cube" structure with twenty-six points. The unique geometric structure serves as inspiration for the creation from darkness to light. The work aims to capture that point in time in nature, in man, in humanity, in which there is a process of "enlightenment", a moment in time when consciousness changes, and physical reality alongside it. A moment when darkness turns into light.
42 pairs of diamonds as a quorum of the Genesis deed, combined in a 12-layer creation containing one carat and seventy-five diamond points.
A word from the designer: "The diamond as the riddle of light formation in creation."
Bible cover from darkness to light, designed by Noy Ben Porat for Or Yahalom Company, Photo: Simulation: Or Yahalom Studio
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