Discovering Barbara Shaw’s gift shop on Bezalel Street in Jerusalem was like finding the perfect present pitstop for friends and family in Israel or abroad. With graphics that combine kitchy fun with contemporary abstract, Barbara’s textiles, pottery and glassware offer a wide range of gift giving options for that special man, woman, baby, child, friend, coworker, dinner host, parent or family member in your life – yes, the gift options are just that good. And – AND! – they’re all reasonably priced, under $50!

Below are a few of my favorite selections from Barbara, favorites that Id love to give or receive this Chanukah, or click to her English site – complete with an online shop – to peruse her complete collection yourself (and make someone very happy this holiday season

This pillow will adorn my couch one day. I love the Jaffa Orange retro-meets-Warhol print/ pattern.

Budding artists, kids included, will enjoy this portable pencil roll up with patterned notebook. There wasn’t a good pic to download but on the site you can see the opened roll with all the pencil slots. From the Seven Species collection.

UPDATE: If you’re in Jerusalem, Barbara is hosting a pre-Chanukah party at her store, 2 Bezalel Street, on December 15th. Enjoy live music, drinks, nibbles and good cheer as you stock up on some Chanukah presents for friends in Israel or abroad (with enough time to send by post). Details here.

Take these three tee-shirts by Israeli design student Irit Lanciano. The idea is simple: the human body has receptacles and containers – hands, stomachs, breasts – and manufactured products serve as receptacles and containers. What happens when the two meet? When what covers your body serves the same purpose with the addition of a newly attached appendage. Where does the human body begin – by its definition and purpose – and the manufactured ‘body’ begin?

Or how about these beautiful leather shoulder bag by Riva. Called the Torso for Design by Riva, it’s a slender and elegantly shaped lithe fashion accessory that comes in an amazing array of colors. (The leather textures are quite sumptuous too.) The detailed stitching and layering of materials along the top edge – what makes the rectangular shape almost hourglass – recalls the curves of a (woman’s) body her hips or her chest. Either way, this small open-hole detail elevates an everyday shoulder bag from merely beautiful to somehow sensual.

Finally, these leotard-clad dancers are by Israeli ceramic artist Meira Una. Despite the impression of flexibility and movement they give, they’re actually frozen in their poses. As vases, the extensions of their body – what actually moves and breathes beyond the ceramic case – are the flowers, plants or leaves that you put in them. An interesting take on what’s natural, alive, (im)material and eternal.

I am pleased to invite you all to next week’s Re-Design Your Workspace, Israel Style. I’ll be covering all things work and office space related including lighting, desktop accessories, office space furniture and general decor. It’ll be cool, colorful, collectible and creative. And hopefully it will look something like the amazingly inspiring workspace featured above by Israeli designer Daniel Fintzi. Now living in Shanghai and collaborating on some very interesting projects, Fintzi will tell us more about his work in general, approach to creativity and the story and approach behind this cool office. So it’s a work in process – ha ha very punny – but it’s going to be great. See you there!

Weekly Wrap Up:

~ Israeli designers ranked high in Designboom’s Dining in 2015 competition. Including top honors for the Fragile breakable salt and pepper shaker by Mey Kahn and Boaz Kahn.

~ To celebrate my birthday I put together a wishlist of (the most expensive) items I wish I owned, ranging from Ron Arad to Arik Levy to Mike Darnell.

Links I’m Loving:

- Israeli design on the super-trendy Daily Candy: Shlomi Yagur is an Israeli-born designer now heading his own product design and development company in Denmark and NY. Multi4m, gets prime billing for this cute elephant lamp on a network TV morning talk show. Check it out here. (Thanks for the link, Shlomi!)

~ A very happy welcome to readers of The Honey, an e-newsletter about life, style, culture and fun in Israel. The Honey loved the Pita Pockets by Anat Safran that I featured on Designist a little while ago and were happy to shout it out on their recent issue. Thanks and check out their newsletter for other fun and trendy things to do – or going on in Israel.

~ And I’m not sure what to make of this Tel Aviv-based fashion house Spunk Fashion. I can pick out some items in the photographs that I would wear but only totally differently – like with a pair of jeans or classic trousers not with the items shown. It seems like the presentation is slightly weird here. Is it just me? Or is it just a very European trendy catalogue look that I’m not vibing with?

Have a great weekend and see you next week for some Israel-style work space re-design!

All eight postings (that is a total of 32 gifts!) of the Hanukkah gift guide can be found here for your convenience.

Or alternately you can find each day listed here:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8

Eight days left until Hanukkah and four incredible gift ideas at your disposal:
(from top left, clockwise)

Tell your man he’s electrifying with this cityscape-inspired tee from Israeli clothing designers 220VOLT. Ironically, I’ve seen more of these electricity poles in the US than I have in Israel, but trust Tel Aviv artists to make street fashion here universally understood – somehow. Available here on etsy.

Does your woman go to market? Or maybe just to work? Then this handcrafted lush “cinnamon” leather handbag from Israeli handbag designers Kissim offers a delightful alternative to the boring standard briefcase straight from Tel Aviv’s burgeoning fashion district, Gan HaHashmal or Electric Garden. But don’t be fooled by its old school, market-basket shape or its perfectly-aged leather, because this bag is totally modern, replete with inside zips and compartments for documents and even a cellphone pocket! Available here.

Your kid may really be the next Picasso with these adorable ‘Doodle Dolls’ by Israeli children’s toy company Manuella. Meirav Flam, the Israeli designer behind the company, strives to create children’s toys that recall simpler times, where quality stemmed from that perfect combination of attention to detail and simplicity. Each cloth boy or girl Doodle Doll comes with a set of washable markers for your tikes to scribble themselves a new playmate. Just think of the imaginary posse potential! Available here.

Nothing beats a gift that bears a personal touch, especially when it matches the colors of one’s home. This set of four “H-O-M-E’” hand-crafted clay magnets make a beautiful and simple addition to one’s kitchen refrigerator. Each is stamped and painted by Israeli artist Rafya who also offers the option of customizing the magnet set to your color choice. It’s the perfect gift for a holiday dinner party host or an office buddy who you just don’t know so well but want to get something classy. Available here on etsy.

Israeli artists and designers are strongly representing at this year’s SOFA expo in Chicago. The 14th annual international exposition of Sculpture Objects and Function Art opens this weekend (November 2nd – 4th) where close to 100 international galleries and dealers are presenting decorative artworks from the USA, France, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, Italy, New Zealand, Israel, England, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Korea, Argentina, Ireland, Palestine, Switzerland and Turkey.

Headlining the expo this year is a special exhibition by 135 Israeli and Palestinian artists who were each asked to interpret the subject of “Offering Reconciliation” on the same clay bowl. Supported by the Parents Circle-Families Forum and the Association of Israel’s Decorative Arts (AIDA), the exhibition relies on the expressive power of art to effect social change.

Among the Israeli artists involved is Aliza Olmert, wife of Israel’s current Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. Her black plate shown above (left) features the phrase ‘Arabs don’t expel Jews don’t expel Arabs’ over and over again down the bowl’s inner circumference. The Hebrew text is white on black with the labels ‘Jews’ and ‘Arabs’ in pink. Clearly, the color demarcation is meant to recall the pink triangle singling out of homosexuals in the Holocaust. Makes you rethink stereotypes and categories of people. Cliché much? Yawn.

What did strike me as interesting however, was the burnt orange bowl above (right) by Israeli artist Dani Karavan. The three hands and abstract black holes remind me of the ‘hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil’ trio usually pictured with monkeys. If only peace were so simple that even monkeys could do it. Or, maybe a bunch of monkeys are running the show around here and that’s why things are so screwy… Well the hands could also signify the collaborative nature behind the project and reflect our need to work together hand in hand toward a peaceful solution. A more cuddly spin on things.

What is less warm and fuzzy about the exhibition is that 15 of the works will be auctioned off during the SOFA weekend. Starting price? $1,500.

Just goes to show you that peace doesn’t come cheap.

The ceramic bowls and plates by Einat Cohen take my breath away. Something about the pastel, opalescent surfaces of the slip cast fruit peel bowls is so captivating that when my husband bought me one for my last birthday, I cried. Even though they’re simple fruit shapes, they seem profoundly complex to me: simultaneously organic and industrial, personal and mass produced, sweet and rotten, living and dying.

At first glance, the texture and ripples were so realistic, that I thought the bowl was an actual cast peel. The outsides of the bowls are painted in a variety of pale, pastel colors, while the insides are pearly white. The edges are unfinished, as if someone was eagerly peeling them off a fruit and not interested in keeping straight lines. And just like the real thing, each bowl is unique. In her own words, Cohen explains that she takes her cues from the world around her.

Soft, organic and asymmetrical, the forms are inspired by nature – mainly the sea and its creatures – as well as by quotidian functional objects typical of mass consumption culture.

The pale yellow pomelo featured above (which incidentally also now sits on my bedside table) is based on the well-known Israeli export. Not native to our country, but grown and eaten here a’plenty, Cohen’s bowls play with the process of mass production by adding a sticker normally found on supermarket produce to her ceramic fruit. Though here, instead of identifying the fruit’s farmers or country of origin, Cohen’s stickers feature her name and website. Thus making Cohen herself the new produce-r of an Israeli export-able product. (I’m punny)

For those who have never tasted a pomelo, I’m apparently better at describing a ceramic version than the actual taste. I claim it’s a cross between a sweet red grapefruit and a lime but so far, no one I’ve spoken to agrees. Neither have they offered any other suggestions though. Anyone out there have more luck painting their palate into words?