At the beginning of this summer, I finally did what I had been wanting to do for a long time: I started selling nonsense.
Well, not nonsense, really.
Shtuyot.
While shtuyot, in a literal sense, does mean nonsense in Hebrew, I like to think of it as much more. Shtuyot is the wacky part of life. It’s the funny side. It’s the unusual, the inexplicably silly, and wonderfully stupid. So when I started a store selling products with wacky Jewish designs that I’ve illustrated, Shtuyot.org was the perfect name.
I decided that, instead of going for broad appeal and making gifts that a wide variety of people would like, I would make silly, heimish* designs that some people will love- and if I make enough of those, then there will be something specific for everyone.
I think of the type of designs I would want to see in a store, and simply assume there are other people with the same interests. For example, I am a Jewish biology student who loves puns and cartooning; and so came the Beis Pairs, a set of nucleotides studying Gemara in chevruta.
I truly believe there is something for everyone at Shtuyot.org, and I am so happy to be able to share my Jewish illustrations with the world in this way.
*lit. ‘“homey” in yiddish, refers to something that is Jewish and cozily familiar, like Bubbe’s chicken soup]
