Chanukiot

I started making chanukiot (chanukah menorot) a few months before Chanukah 5782 and I am in love with this object. Given the necessity to hold nine candles, there is so much opportunity for play in terms of form and materials. The majority of my chanukiot are made from gray birch I harvest from my friends property (an old nursery) just down the road from where I live. Birch trees are significant in slavic folklore and the children’s stories of my youth. The branches are used as venik (bundle of branches) in the banya as part of the practice, and have other medicinal uses.