How the Spinning Top Turns

Hanukkah is my festival, the festival during which I was born. It’s always been a particularly joyful festival for me, but as my personal family has grown – it’s become even happier as it blends with my children’s joy.

Designing spinning tops, which I began back in 2016, has quickly become a tradition that I have observed ever since. Every year I produce 40-50 unique spinning tops, a limited edition, and now my excitement is mounting as Hanukkah 2018 approaches!

Producing small quantities initially stemmed from technical constraints, for the most part. I designed and produced the 2016 edition of the SEVIVON spinning tops while being an (almost) full-time stay-at-home mom. I didn’t even have the means to produce a large quantity – so I began with what I had. It should be noted (I’m allowed a little pride, aren’t I?) that the SEVIVON 2016 design sold out.

In 2017, too, I still produced the spinning tops at home, on an ancient lathe and with my father’s generous help. The design of this SEVIVON is bolder, and I produced 50 spinning tops made from black and white Corian combined with brass or stainless steel. And yes, only a handful of SEVIVON 2017 remain.

This year, I decided on an interesting combination of colors and – wood. The colors reminded me of the colorful Hanukkah candles and the joy associated with the Festival of Lights. For me, the wood provides a feeling of home, and also takes us back in time, to the world of wooden toys, inviting us to touch and experience. While designing the spinning top, I imagined my daughters, Maya and Liri, sitting with me on the carpet, choosing a spinning top in their favorite color, and holding a spinning competition with me. Back to basics. To the spin of spinning top that has always reminded me of a dance, a kind of infinite twirl.

And indeed, the harmony of the movement and that twirl of the dancer’s dress, soft and silent, became a source of inspiration for me as I designed the spinning tops. Additionally, one of the associations I had during the design process was a spinning top as a kind of toy dwarf that you can compete with in a game of “which dwarf will spin faster/longer”. In this instance, I did not only think about the appearance of the spinning top, but also about children’s joy of playing. And that, after all, is what’s truly important.