LAURA Gamliel (neé Wajc- hendler) was born and grew up in Ilford and attended King Solomon High School, where she developed a passion for art. She went on to take art ‘A’ level, very much encouraged by her art teacher there – Mr Jepson – who she describes as ‘amazing’.
After her marriage, she moved to north west London and qualified as a teacher. Following the death of her mother five years ago, Laura decided she should try taking up art again, as she needed a release from the stress of losing her mother.
So after a 15-year break, Laura decided to attend art classes, unsure that she could remember how to paint. But as soon as she put brush to the canvas, it was as if time had not passed at all since she had stopped painting and she hasn’t stopped since.
Laura has since used this passion to create a business that provides hand-painted bespoke kippot, tzitzit, bags, pencil cases, paintings on canvas and clocks. She started the company a couple of years ago, when she began making kippot for her two sons. It was when people started seeing her work on social media, that the orders started to flow in.
Following on from designs for children, adults too have shown ‘kippart envy’, which led Laura to design a binary themed kippah as well as a ten pin bowling ball themed one for her bowling mad dad.
She takes great pride in her work, and with much attention to detail, always striving to give her customers a personal service, offering tailor-made solutions to each individual customer depending on their need. “I am very excited at being able to follow my passion and get so much joy from it,” says Laura. “I love what I am able to do and to see other people happy with my work.
Laura has undertaken some big projects too, one of which was a commission to hand-paint 150 kippot for Norwood, which were given out to participants on their charity bike rides.
For more information on kippArt see Laura’s Instagram page kippArt_by_Laura or on Facebook at kippart by Laura.
