Gates Of Jerusalem Collage Art

The “Three Weeks” on the Jewish calendar is always such a challenging time, as on the one hand it is a mourning period, which intensifies for the last 9 days, and on the other hand it is summer vacation! There is no listening to music or playing musical instruments, and joyful occasions that can be planned, like weddings are not permitted. This year we are in a serious time warp and difficult time in any case, so processing it all seems less difficult, but usually the idea of no swimming during the 9 days just when kids would be going to camp might be hard to process. That said, one can certainly do crafts for hours on end, and this gates of Jerusalem collage art project is a great one for the whole family. And shhhhh, it is actually a bit addictive so you may just have found something to keep everyone busy for hours on end, wouldn’t that be amazing? And best of all, when you are finished you’ll have some meaningful art to hang on the wall, and enjoy for years to come. And of course, you can take my idea and then do your own spin on this, which would be the most wonderful way to go about this project. So gets those creative gears turning, collect a bunch of paper scraps and little receipts and tickets and even gum wrappers, and go to town. And another shhhhh, this is actually really therapeutic as well, so try to encourage collaging plus deep conversation or soul searching of some kind, to make the end result even more special. Okay, lets make some gates of Jerusalem collage art!

You’ll Need:

• a collage that you’ve made, see my collage instructions here
• a piece of watercolor paper that suits a frame you may have on hand, mine is 11″ x 14″ roughly
• matte medium
• a permanent marker
• some cardboard to make a template
• a frame, a deep one is preferable or use a matte to keep collage pieces from touching glass
• scissors

How To:

1. Make a collage from bits and pieces according to the instructions here.
2. Make a template for the size of gate that works for your frame. Give this some thought based on how much white space you’ll want on your base sheet.
3. Trace around gate template on collage with black pen, either randomly or intentionally, you decide.
4. Cut out gates, and save the middle of the arch as well, to use together with the gates or in another project.
5. Play around with the arrangement of gates on your base paper, and then affix them with matte medium.

Voila, Jerusalem Gates collage art is born! If you really want to get technical you could do the research regarding the names of all the gates (i believe there are 12) and add that to the project in some way. I choose to go as simple and non-literal as I could.
In the photo you’ll see a beveled top on the arches, I decided that was too specific and cut them off.

Right now I am so happy to have this art in our living room to remind me many times through out the day that we are now mourning the destruction of Jerusalem. Sometimes life distracts us from some of the most meaningful moments, and Gates of Jerusalem collage art gives a gentle wake up call, to remember Jerusalem!I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about this project and you’ll take a hour or two to add one to your home!