azadig bidanian collection

Azadig Bidanian, émigrée from Anjar, Lebanon, currently lives in the Armenian population center of Fresno, California. Before retiring, Azadig worked as a professional seamstress in the San Francisco Bay Area with a specialty in creating one-of-a-kind wedding gowns. Deborah first met Azadig in 2019, when she submitted a letter-to-the-editor to an online Armenian newspaper in search of a needlelace teacher. At their first meeting, Azadig taught Deborah needlelace knots, reminisced about her life as a girl in the Armenian village of Anjar, and unpacked the needlelace pieces she had made and collected from friends and relatives over the years. The two maintained email communication throughout the pandemic, and after, Deborah continued to visit Azadig once or twice a year.

Deborah first introduced Elise to Azadig in January 2023, and in December of the same year, Deborah and Elise visited Azadig together for the second time. Azadig prepared a delicious meal of traditional Armenian dishes thoughtfully translated into vegan versions. Sitting at her round kitchen table, they caught up on family news. But soon their conversation turned toward Armenian culinary practices, especially on growing and curing olives and grape leaves for making yalangi sarma (stuffed grape leaves). 

Afterward, Azadig unpacked boxes of her Armenian needlelace and crocheted doilies, table runners, and collars, and one by one, described who made them. Some pieces she made when she was recuperating from surgery as a girl. Others were made by childhood friends and presented in 1966 to Azadig as keepsakes when she left Anjar, knowing that they might never see each other again.

Sitting on Azadig’s bedroom floor, Deborah took photos of each piece for identification purposes while Elise took notes so that there would be an accurate record of Azadig’s kind donation. The pieces have been cleaned, photographed, and archived. Most are currently in Deborah’s care and selected pieces are showcased here. 

For a more complete story of Azadig Bidanian, please read Deborah Valoma and Elise Youssoufian’s story “The Needlelace Roadtrip” (coming soon).