iskuhi sargsyan portfolio

armenia

Yerevan-based Iskuhi Sargyan (she/her) is a gifted needlework artist and teacher with a keen eye towards the past and the future, whose family lines are from Western Armenia and the town of Aparan in Armenia’s Aragatsotn province. An economist and master of Antep embroidery, needlelace, and other Armenian needlework traditions, she grew up in the 1980s in Mgrshat, a key village in Armenia’s Armavir province near a Bronze Age archeological site. Fittingly, given her dedication to tradition and her generosity of spirit, Iskuhi’s elegant, old-fashioned first name is related to an Armenian word, իսկական, (from իրական), meaning “authentic,” “real,” “true.”

A quick study, at the age of thirty-five Iskuhi eagerly began learning to make needlelace at the Teryan Cultural Center in Yerevan from celebrated Armenian needlework maker, author and lecturer Lusine Mkhitaryan, as did several other contemporary threadwork artists in Armenia such as Armine Atoyan, another featured maker on this site. Embodying her assertion that she has a “true passion for Armenian needlework,” Iskuhi developed her needlelace skills rapidly, reproducing historic works and creating her own compositions, sometimes by combining and innovating multiple techniques. By 2019, she was teaching her own students at Teryan, which for a few weeks that year included Elise Youssoufian, who went on to become a needlelace teacher herself and a co-founder of the Armenian Needlelace Initiative.

As Armenians in Armenia and around the world were reeling from war in 2020 and seeking paths forward, the Teryan Cultural Center produced a number of educational videos with the goal of preserving and sharing Armenian needlework traditions. In 2021, Iskuhi was featured in their excellent three-part series on needlelace, demonstrating techniques and patterns from Van (two-dimensional) and Garin (three-dimensional).

Recognized as a Master of Folks Arts of the Republic of Armenia, Iskuhi was recently interviewed for an article in the Armenian Weekly which features her lacework and her scientific inspirations. Iskuhi is also inspired by Armenian art and culture. When discussing her needlework, she often pairs photos of pieces—doilies, jewelry, trims, and more—with lyrical reflections on life and beauty or quotes from Armenian poems or songs, old and new. Per the article, Iskuhi shares that “when she discovered Armenian lace, she realized it was a domain with a beginning but no end.”

She would like to continue teaching various needlework forms, but at present her teaching practice is temporarily on hold. Perhaps for the time being, this continuation will take place at home. She notes: “Though needlelace wasn’t a tradition in my family, my daughter is interested in starting to learn.”