Dove of Hope by Daniella Flakowicz

Today I'm showing the work of a wonderfully talented Israeli artist; Daniella Flakowicz.

I met Daniella when she attended my bead-embroidery workshops a few months back, and as you will be able to see, she took to bead-embroidery like a duck to water! :-) Although I'm not surprised because if you check her website, you will see she is a woman of many artistic talents!

When Daniella described this piece to me and the reasons why she created it, I had goose bumps all over and tears in my eyes. This piece is not only stunning, but the reasons behind its creation are so touching.

This is what Daniella had to say about this piece:

"Here is the dove of hope... created with all my thoughts and concern for Gilad Shalit. I ended the work on day 900 of his captivity ,which is 21600 hours !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Imagine.

Each bead was carefully embroidered as one hour of Gilad's time.
I hope and pray he is released as soon as possible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have dedicated this project to Gilad's mother as a very small thing I could do to be with her.

I thank you Triz for teaching me the art of bead embroidery, so I could combine it with my love of painting and colours, even though I limited the colours to white and shades of blue, colours of our national flag .

I hope as many people see this dove of hope, so we don't forget our Gilad, a son of ours. "

The Hebrew words are from a proverb from the bible: "that our sons shall return to our borders"

I can't really add much more to this.... the piece is stunning, its sentiments are even more beautiful.... I'm deeply honoured that I had a tiny (tiny) part in teaching this technique to such a wonderful artist, and I too pray and hope for the speedy release of Gilad Shalit!!!

If you are unfamiliar with who Gilad Shalit is, please visit http://www.habanim.org/en/gilad_en.html and read more about his story.