Custom Ner Tamid
Gabriel Bass designs and produces unique Synagogue Furniture in the Judean Hills:
His 400 square meter shop is located between Jerusalem and Bet Shemesh and caters to the world. The inside is as remarkable as the view; housing wood, glass, and metal studios, a gallery, library, and office. At the studios you can watch artisans at work creating entire synagogue interiors, aron kodeshes, bimahs, shtenders, and ner tamids from solid wood, glass, and metal.
Synagogues a every denomination turn to Custom Carving from around the world to commission custom furnishings. Gabriel started Custom Carving over 14 years ago in Seattle, USA. He made aliyah 10 years ago and attended Bezalel Academy for Art and Design in Jerusalem to study glass and design. Today he runs Custom Carving from Moshav Mata, where he has built the studio that specializes in creating a unique style of furniture and judaica inspired by the contemporary craft movement. You can view his work at Http://www.GabrielBass.com
Custom Carving has a resume of over 200 synagogues that they have worked with around the world, not to mention private homes, museums, awards, and more. Among the recent commssions are a few unforgettable projects. Gabriel is currently working on 3 commissioned torah cases at the same time, one which will be shipped to Australia, the second to Los Angeles, and the third a Sephardic torah case for a 300 year old torah recently saved from Syria. Last year he designed, produced, and installed the entire millwork for the interior of Bet Israel in New Orleans, who have just finished their remodel from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. The summer before he was sent to rural Uganda to installed a solar powered Ner Tamid that he had created for the Abayudaya community, and was recently contacted by the same donors to return to Uganda in order to create an educational program while building the entire interior furnishings for the new synagogue complex on site. Gabriel is currently working with the international chabad headquarters in Washington DC, chabad of Silver Spring, MD, UPenn chabad, and chabd of Aspen on projects that will include challenging plans to build the entire interior synagogue furnishings.
In addition to being the fastest growing synagogue furniture producer in the world, Gabriel has found time to teach as well. He has established The Center for the Development for Jewish Art, where artists are encouraged to explore new techniques and materials in order to express their Jewish or Israeli sentiment. Classes are offered in a range of techniques for wood, glass, and metal which offer a new way of learning based upon working with each student individually for their needs. To learn more about the artist studios, classes, and watch work in progress you can visit Http://www.JewishArtistCenter.org
Contact Gabriel directly for appointments to visit the studio, register for classes, and more information regarding available and custom work. 202-609-9754 (from North America) and 052-676-9789 (in Israel)
The Hebrew website can be found at Http://www.SynagogueFurnitureArt.com