An Introduction To Hebrew Lettering For Crafting

Summer is the perfect time to delve into projects that just might take more time than is available during the year. So with that in mind and the fact that I encourage making crafts for the succah now, I'm doing an Ushpizin project with a few of my students, a project that requires hand lettering all the names of the Ushpizin, and some lessons in how to work on lettering so that while not 100% perfect, it is at least worthy of the project they've spent so much time making!

As it turns out block Hebrew lettering is actually much easier to craft with than block English lettering because there are only 2 letters that are closed, samech and mem sofit, making the cutting out of the letters so much simpler! This post shows my version in blue, and my students versions below, and it it the header piece for an Ushpizin project for the Succah. Okay, lets learn a little bit about how to start with basic yet decorative Hebrew lettering!

You'll Need:

• pencil and lined paper
• carbon paper (we didn't have it for this stage, and made do)
• a thin black pen, I love the Uniball Air, a GREAT pen
• cereal box cardboard, aluminum coated cardboard lids for aluminum trays, colored paper

How To:

1. Write the whole hebrew alphabet or just the word ushpizin, in letters that are formed from a simple single line.
2. Make sure that the letters are all the same height in accordance with the lines on the paper, except of course for letters that are ascenders or descenders.
3. Make sure that the letters are written with space in between them so they can be embellished.
4. This simple step of writing the word "ushpizin" in 2" high letters was somewhat difficult for my students, which was quite surprising, yikes!
5. Once the word or letters have been correctly drawn/written, embellish the letters by simply adding another line on each side of the original line/lines that formed the letter.
6. Take a close look at the photo below to understand what I mean!
7. If you want to make this header for an ushpizin craft for the succah, transfer your letters to colored paper (mine in blue) or metallic silver cardboard (my student's work) and cut them out!

And now is a great time to start practicing block Hebrew lettering, and we still have to write all the names of the Ushpizin, which we've already done, I just need to photograph it, stay tuned.

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