Rakefet Yaakoba

Art and Psychology Intertwined

I have busy hands and a busy mind. For many years, my hands created ceramics, embroidery, crocheted baskets and other multimedia objects. Then, over ten years ago I started making mosaics. This mosaic work engages the mind and the hands at the same time which is deeply satisfying and inspirational. As such, it empowers me to tell stories through making.

I am also a clinical psychologist (over 20 years) with a specialization in military and family trauma. We therapists are privy to remarkable and often disturbing narratives of human experience, frequently heartbreaking ones. Throughout my years of practice, I have found creating art to be a meaningful and therapeutic tool in the process of working with these heavier narratives. It allows for the transformation of something painful into something beautiful, and, therefore, hopeful. With Soulbreaks Studio, I invite you to be part of this transformation.

I look forward to hearing your story.

Find meaning in your stories

Transform life’s challenges into a work of art

It all started here …

I started doing mosaics as a way to deal with my divorce. It was an ugly one. After a particularly challenging interaction with my ex and his new partner, I burned down the dilapidated shed that he had built on my property. I would build myself an art studio in its place.

My son was three years old then, and I had little time to do art. The hand-formed pottery I had been doing before becoming a mom seemed impossible to do now. I needed a medium that could be worked on in short and varied time slots and that I could start and stop in the middle if needed. While visiting my home country around this time, a childhood friend, Tammar, showed me some mosaics she had made. Tammar and I had done embroidery as teens and crocheted rugs in our early twenties together. When she showed me those mosaics and how to make them I was in my mid-forties.

I started by breaking dishes and tiles with a hammer. The sounds, the flying shards, and the overall sense of destruction was analogous to my broken heart. For the first few years I used only pieces that I broke with a hammer. Looking back at those times and the pieces I made, the process reflects my painful post-divorce reality. The finished mosaics mirrored my hopes for a more colorful and simple life.

I break ceramic tile, dishes and glass to re-construct a visually pleasing piece that represents your frame of mind, as well as your hopes and wishes for the future.

 

The process

Born of a dream

Creating a mosaic piece is a stepwise process both in terms of the technical work as well as the creative and emotional aspects. Some pieces I come by easily as if they were born of a dream I cannot recall but that sits in my memory. Others come about like a challenging birth.

Choosing the wood-tone and/or color palette can be one organizing element, allowing me to envision the broken pieces that might house it. A few dishes on the side of the road with a free sign can be the impetus to a piece. In emotionally painful times, I find myself ending up with a bird image in the shards, even if I didn’t start with one in mind. I feel often that these pieces work through me.

Technically, the first step is to adhere the pieces to the substrate. I tend to commit to a particular design rapidly (side-stepping the fear of avoidance before it happens). I also enjoy it when there are surprises, and it is my experience that design surprises come with less planning and more doing.

The period of breaking, chipping and cutting can span from a few hours to a few days. Mosaic pieces might include crockery, stained glass, tiles, metal treasures, broken toys, Smalti glass, and the list keeps growing. I use an outdoor quality glue and epoxy grout if the piece is going to be installed outside.

Basket Weaving

Threading memories

Baskets are pretty objects that can hide less pretty objects. My love of making and using baskets around the house stems from my love of hiding these less pretty but usually practical things - remote controls, piles of papers, socks, and even toys.

My son attended his first six years of education at a Waldorf school, where handwork is an important part of the curriculum. Since I knew to knit, I offered my assistance to the handwork teacher and learned to crochet together with the children in the class. This class was always joyous and soothing. That started my baskets period and I have never stopped.

I particularly enjoy crocheting unused yarn or yarn from sweaters. I often receive unused and sometimes even piles of yarn from people who feel badly about not starting or not completing a project. Expensive and high quality yarn combines well with simple acrylic yarns for a basket. I use four to six skeins together and they merge in ways never expected. It’s always a fun surprise. If you have yarns such as this to give a new life to, send them my way and I'll make you a lively and practical basket.