Portion-specific illuminations

It's the idea that counts, not your drawing skill.

Illustrations pertaining to your verses are particularly welcome and meaningful, and help to orient viewers to the narrative. Although you may not – or may – be a Biblical scholar, or you may not – or may – be comfortable with picture-making, there are several ways of illuminating the same story.

Example A: Genesis 1: Creation Day 4: separating day and night.

Diane shows a rising sun "to dominate the day".

Fran blends strands of floss to achieve a gradation to brightest light at the top. The bottom portion consists of 18 rectangles, representing chai/life.

Example B: Genesis 4: Cain & Abel

Debby shows Cain as a "tiller of the soil" and Abel as a "keeper of sheep".

Barbara represents the brothers as symbols, and the blurring ground shows the disintegration of their relationship.

Explore a variety of sources

This far-from-definitive list suggests some directions you might take to better understand your verses. The more you grapple with the text, the more interesting your illumination ideas will be. These are suggestions only, not an endorsement of a particular interpretive orientation or supplier.

Commentaries and Translations

http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0.htm

Plaut and Stein, The Torah: A Modern Commentary, Revised Edition http://books.google.ca/books/about/תורה.html?id=wCTfI2rpvXEC

Eskenazi and Weiss, The Torah: A Women's Commentary
http://books.google.ca/books/about/The_Torah.html?id=_7oSAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y

The Pentateuch is divided into 54 weekly readings, and many scholars and organizations publish commentaries.
Find your section on http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/readingp.htm, and then
"Search Torah Commentary" on sites such as http://www.reformjudaism.org/learning

Manuscripts and Lore

http://bestiary.ca "Beasts" includes birds, insects, plants, stones and mythological creatures. You can search within the site and/or on the web.

Images

See this magnificent contemporary hand-written, hand-illuminated bible, page by page, for free: http://www.saintjohnsbible.org

Ilene Winn Lederer, Between Heaven and Earth: An Illuminated Torah Commentary, reviewed in http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/visionary-art-a-traveler-in-the-torah

Google images: "Illustrated Bible". Use with discretion and avoid cuteness.

Dover Publications: http://search.doverpublications.com/search?keywords=bible and clip art: http://www.doverpictura.com

Pinterest

http://www.pinterest.com/birkatchaverim/jewish-art/
http://www.pinterest.com/boohog/cross-stitch/
There is now a rudimentary search engine that allows you to find Pinterest sites/boards that interest you.

Museums and their websites

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Using technology to convert an image into a stitching pattern