an illustration of a fat, feathered, bird-clawed & horned, queer & trans Jewish demon, seated above Yiddish text reading "feygele." the figure is chained by the wrists but appears arrogant & inviting.
a poem with an illustration of bird with a person's head & crown of stars. the title (in Hebrew) is "sheyd
FEYGELE, 2020.
a sheyd (Jewish demon) inspired by two major stylistic influences, Leonard Baskin & Aubrey Beardsley, and also by the #AugustAdiPOSE & #FatArt hashtags on Twitter. the title/text “feygele” is a Yiddish word meaning “little bird” often used as pejorative slang for a queer person – here also playing off the figure’s size & the bird-like attributes of sheydim in folklore. a queer/trans fat Jewish aspiration!
Pages from mini zines about Jewish folklore (the series includes zines on golems, dybbuk, malachim and sheydim) by illustrator / zinester, Ezra Rose. Buy them here and pay what you like.
figure i oughta reblog this now that i’m back on the site. the number of notes on this is a little overwhelming, honestly - thanks for all the interest! & thank you @fanzines for the spotlight.
just a note for folks in the tags insisting that it’s somehow “forbidden” to write out the word “sheyd” or “sheydim” (in English transliteration, no less!) & cautioning non-Jews to avoid writing or speaking it: please don’t spread nonsense around my work, which is intended to be educational & available to everyone. i’m not sure where this idea came from (a misunderstanding of the fact that we often don’t write out divine names?), but i’ve been studying Jewish demonology via the writings of many respected rabbis & scholars for years & this has absolutely never come up. so much of our historical information on customs & beliefs about sheydim comes from the many explicit references to them in the Talmud, not to mention all the text on the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowls! we write the word out all the time, in Hebrew, in Aramaic, English, etc. it’s fine.
a purple, starry, six-armed & multi-eyed worm creature with a letter shin crown floats against a black background with gold star of David borders
three gold foil prints of the shamir worm artwork on a light grey background
Shamir Worm, 2021.
the shamir worm is one of Jewish folklore’s “miracles of creation,” made at twilight on the sixth day (along with things like the rainbow and Moses’ staff): a tiny creature that could cut stone - either by its piercing gaze or with its mouth - it was used by King Solomon to build the first temple, due to the fact that no iron tools or other potential instruments of bloodshed could be used to build a holy monument to peace. some say it was also used to engrave the tablets with the 10 commandments, and to engrave the names of the 12 tribes of Israel on the stones in the priestly breastplate. the mystical shamir is a symbol of creative destruction and a reminder that powerful things can come in tiny forms.
two miniature clay golems holding scrolls on a burlap background. in the foreground is a glass vial mezuzah.
three miniature clay golems holding scrolls in front of a book of Jewish folklore open to a section on the golem of Prague.
a miniature clay golem holding a scroll in a box, next to a golem mini-zine & description card.
Pocket Golems, 2019 - present
each golem is a one-of-a-kind, hand-sculpted figurine based on the Jewish legend of the golem (גולם), a mythic monster made of clay or stone and given life in order to act as a protector. ranging in size from approximately 1-2" tall, these golems (the Hebrew plural is “glamim”) are made of polymer clay mixed with wood ash to replicate stone. they were created to be portable, personal guardians: a reminder of our connections to the mystical side of Judaism and to the stories of our past, or a symbol of Jewish resilience and resistance in a difficult present. each golem holds a blank scroll that can be customized by the owner with any of the following: the name of something or someone you want to protect, a quotation from scripture, an intention for your future, a secret, or a wish.
a black & white circular design featuring a Star of David made of bones with a weeping eye in the center. English text reads "GOTH JEW" with smaller Hebrew text to either side
a black & white circular design featuring demonic hands giving the "horns" symbol and half of the Jewish priestly blessing, with the text "HAIL SHEYDIM"
three holographic stickers on a grey background: a clawed hamsa, a pomegranate with an eye, and the GOTH JEW design
ALTERNATIVE JUDAICA: GOTH JEW, HAIL SHEYDIM, Death Hamsa & Life Pomegranate
don’t let Catholic goths have all the fun - Jewish children of the night deserve our own black roses! the Hebrew text featured on GOTH JEW includes a quote from Lamentations, “he has made me dwell in darkness, like those long dead,” & from the Talmud tractate Berachot 32b, “the gates of tears were not locked.” the Hebrew on the hamsa sticker says “death” & the pomegranate reads “life.”
all designs are available on Redbubble, holo stickers via Etsy
two miniature Jewish Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowl pendants on beaded necklaces against a parchment paper background
a miniature Jewish Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowl pendant on a silver chain, against a backdrop of cloth and text about incantation/demon bowls
Miniature Incantation Bowl Pendants
these necklaces feature tiny, hand-painted polymer clay reproductions of ancient Jewish magic incantation bowls (sometimes called “demon bowls”). these bowls were created during the period of 300-600 CE by several cultures in the Levant area, though many of the examples that have been recovered are written in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. they often depict demons bound & chained at the center, surrounded by a spell to “trap” or ward off harmful spirits, and were usually buried under doorways to protect homes.
the clay pendants (around 1.5" in diameter) are colored and textured with natural pigments, then painted with acrylic - the “text” on these miniature reproductions, due to size constraints, is impressionistic rather than a copy of the real spells.
a short zine illustrating a chapter of the Hechalot Rabbati, an ancient Jewish mystical text which describes—in gory detail—the dangers of listening to the angels singing around the merkavah (holy chariot). it features detailed pen & ink artwork drawing from both Jewish symbolic tradition (including panel borders inspired by antique Ashkenazi gravestone carvings) and a modern macabre visionary style.
incredible to look back at this one 5 years later! my first Jewish zine. folks’ response to this really changed my whole creative practice & it helped me find my voice after almost a decade of artistic burnout.
still available as a free/pay-what-you-want digital download at itch.io, physical copies occasionally in my Etsy shop
earlier this year i was honored to be asked to do the cover for issue #1 of Golem Zine, a series showcasing voices from lesser-known Jewish communities around the world. this first issue celebrated Jewish life & culture in Glasgow, and creating this cover involved a deep dive into the history of Glaswegian Jewish art & architecture.
title pages & interior illustrations for Dream Askew (in green) & Dream Apart (in sepia), 2018, Buried Without Ceremony
DA/DA was my first real TTRPG job & remains one of my favorite projects ever - two beautiful games about survival (queer communities in the near-future apocalypse, Jewish communities in a historic/fantastical shtetl) that truly live inside you once you’ve played them. this was the beginning of the Belonging Outside Belonging system/style (built on the frameworks of Powered by the Apocalypse), which has gone on to inspire many other incredible games!
