Superman Tzitzis

Superman Tzitzis

I am currently dealing with a 5 year-old who is less than impressed with tzitzis ("They're itchy!") and the kippah?  Eh, not so much.  The t-shirt tzitzis I bought him have been received more favorably, but less than enthusiastically.  Solution?  Superman tzitzis. (though with an A for "Avishai").  

I was able to create a basic template using only Microsoft Word.  I wanted to find a font with a serif to get the same feel of the Superman "S".  "Georgia" fit the bill, and I used word art to make a large "A".  I then inserted an inverted triangle and superimposed it over the "A".  If you are trying this at home, make sure you use the "no fill" option so that you can see the position of your letter.  I printed this out, cut off the corners and added a border.  The result looked like this:

I used this as an underlay to trace the design on the tzitzis: 

From here on out, it is a simple paint-by- numbers project. I used fabric paint, but simple acrylics can be used as well.

Finish it off with a fabric marker outline:

Voila!  A quick dry and then set the colors with a hot iron making it color fast and washable. 

Superman comics originated with a couple of nice Jewish boys from Cleveland and contained Jewish themes.  You never wondered about that name, Kal-El?  There are theories about Superman themes being takes on Jewish ideas and values, top among them Superman/Kal-El being the comicbook world's first Marrano. While this might not be what creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster imagined, they have provided the inspiration for this Jewish Superman (er, "Superboy"?) in his crime fighting mitzva performing cape tzitzis.