Born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn in 1954, Izzy moved to Israel in 1978. After discovering pretty soon that Chemistry was not going to be the field that he was going to, in the words of Billy Joel,  "write his masterpiece" in,  he switched professions to take up the art of the Sofer - or religious scribe. And he has been involved in the field of making letters ever since. Izzy Pludwinski has been working as a professional calligrapher since 1980, starting out as a certified religious scribe (Sofer STaM) and then branching out into calligraphy and design. After professionally freelancing for six years, he expanded his studies by first studying privately for a short while with Lili Wronker and Alice and then by attending Roehampton Institute for two years under the tutelage of Ann Camp, Gaynor Goffe, Gerald Fleuss and Tom Perkins, completing their certificate in Calligraphy & Bookbinding. He has exhibited throughout Israel and has given two one-man shows in London. His work has appeared in Letter Arts Review (seven times being accepted to the "Annual"), The Scribe, (author of article: "The Experience of the Hebrew Scribe", summer 1989) and The Encyclopedia Judaica among other publications. He was the calligrapher of The Jerusalem Hagaddah (illustrated by Yael Hershberg) and the Moriah Hagadah (illustrated by Avner Moriah). In 2004,  Izzy had the honor of being invited to Wales to work on the Hebrew for the St. John's Bible, under Donald Jackson. Izzy has taught Hebrew Calligraphy in Jerusalem for approximately 11 years and set up the Hebrew Calligraphy course at the Spiro Institute in London. In addition he has lectured at the Emunah College symposium on the Hebrew Letter and has given Hebrew Calligraphy workshops at the Israel Museum. After teaching many years in various adult educational institutions in Jerusalem, Izzy now  teaches via a correspondence course he has established, as well as teaching  privately, in addition to keeping up a heavy workload as a freelance calligrapher. His varied commissions have included work for the President's Office, inscription of the dedication page on the Bible presented to the Pope by the Israeli government on the occassion of his visit to Jerusalem, lettering for the Yakar Synagogue in Jeruslaem, and wine labels for the Golan winery. He has recently been to Wales to write the Hebrew for the St. John's Bible Project, headed by Donald Jackson. In addition to his own work, Izzy works with many of the top Judaica artists doing the calligraphy for their illuminations and illustrations. His personal work centers arounds the pure calligraphic presentation of (mainly) Jewish texts. He sees as his main calligraphic challenge, the "unsquaring" of the Hebrew script to allow for more expression. To this end he has just completed an exciting new Hebrew typeface, "Shir", and has published a limited edition book - The Song of Songs, set in the new face. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and two beautiful daughters.

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