GIFT GUIDE

B

etsy Besl exudes creativ-
ity. She just can’t help 
herself. Everything she 
touches turns captivating.
She’s always working on a 
project, usually multiple at once. 
In time for Chanukah, Besl has 
created chanukiyot (Chanukah 
menorahs), in a way that only 
Besl can.
As a little girl growing up in 
Cincinnati, she made tiny books, 
about an inch square, out of piec-
es of paper that she had made 
drawings on, punched holes in 
then bound together. Her mother, 
an expert needlepointer, taught 
Besl the craft, but the child gave 

the works her own mark by creat-
ing her own fanciful designs, like 
caterpillars and colorful mush-
rooms. Her artwork was often 
small, and always whimsical.
“I can’t remember a time 
when I wasn’t doing art,
” says the 
University of Michigan school of 
fine arts grad and mom of two 
adult daughters. When those 
daughters grew a little older, Besl 
went to work as a teaching artist 
at Temple Israel’s Early Childhood 
Center in West Bloomfield, 
where her joy of creating art was 
enhanced by working with chil-
dren and their families. But even 
then, she thirsted for more: She 

Chanukiyot crafted from found 
objects help the artist create 
a connection to families, the 
community and Judaism from home.

DeLIGHTful

LYNNE KONSTANTIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

44 | NOVEMBER 11 • 2021 

BETSY BESL

Whimsical chanukiyot 
created by Betsy Besl