Reeva Shaffer

Reeva Schaffer was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her early artistic expressions and any obsessions with perfection are credited to her father's interest in building and creating, be it carving a wooden table or altering their small house. She cannot remember a time when there were not three or four craft projects in progress and he welcomed her involvement. Reeva had always wanted to teach and her first profession was education. After marriage, a move to Los Angeles, the birth of her first child, and becoming a stay-at-home mom, she dabbled with calligraphy, so thoroughly enjoying it that it became her freelance profession, continuing even as she had three more children. She realized that calligraphy went hand in hand with graphic design and thus continued to study both for many years and in many venues. In the 1980's, she collaborated with a weaver in designing a wedding canopy: she hand painted it and was hooked on fabric painting. Designing for more than twenty-five years, Reeva has made thousands of tallitot and has designed and fabricated commissions for over 150 synagogues. These include Torah mantles, parochet (ark curtains), wall hangings and lectern covers. Most often, she interprets biblical scenes in fabric. She considers her strength to be her color sense. She tries to embue everything she create with a modern interpretation of the past...just pushing the envelope slightly. Reeva could never express the wonder and fulfillment she feels knowing that the creations of her hands bring spiritual delight to others. She says that a part of her remains in everything she designs.