Janet Greenberg

PotterMember Since 2022

As a Jewish potter, I am inspired to create pieces in the name of hiddur mitzvah, which means adorning with beauty objects used to perform rituals. 

The complete oeuvre of my pottery includes secular pieces such as soap dishes, bowls, colanders, teapots with cups, and serving trays; my Judaica includes dreidels, mezzuzah cases, Miriam goblets for Passover and serving pieces for Shabbat.

Dreidels are my favorite and also most challenging pieces to throw. If they’re not perfectly centered, they won’t spin. Although porcelain dreidels are probably cabinet pieces, who can resist twirling a dreidel?!?

My collection began in Israel over 30 years ago and includes silver Yemenite dreidels and Murano glass dreidels, but the ones that fired my imagination were meticulously painted porcelain dreidels made by Israeli artist Danny Azoulay whose work continues to inspire me.

Decorating my dreidels with Hebrew calligraphy is grounding. After a bisque firing, I apply ש ה ג נ (A Great Miracle Happened There) with black underglaze. Sometimes I produce "Israeli versions” which read “A Great Miracle Happened Here.” Finally, I apply a clear glaze to bring out the beautiful whiteness of the clay body. Each fired dreidel gets a glass stem and a glass display base.

At the urging of a close friend, I recently produced my own interpretation of ancient amulet bowls which originally were intended to ward off evil spirits. My amulet bowls are wheel-thrown in porcelain then decorated with a blessing in either Hebrew or English calligraphy. The amulet bowl rests in a ring-shaped stand so it can be held and easily rotated to read the blessing which forms a spiral inside.

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