maral sheuhmelian portfolio

armenia

Maral Sheuhmelian is a Yerevan-based folk arts expert specializing in making and teaching traditional forms of Armenian needlework as a means of promoting cultural preservation. With extensive knowledge of stitches familiar to Armenian women in Syria—e.g., from Svaz, Marash, Dikranagerd, Van, Malatya, Ourfa, and Antep—she has taught countless classes in Armenia and also enjoys visiting other countries regularly to lead workshops and exhibit her masterful creations, including several of the works featured in the image gallery below.

Raised in Aleppo, Syria, Maral began learning to make Armenian needlelace in her home, from her grandmothers Makrouhi Sheuhmelian and Mary Mikhjian in the early 1960s at a very young age. Remarkably, Maral took her first steps in needlelace making even before she learned how to walk! As she puts it, “I was sitting near my grandmother and trying to copy her. Admiring her skill awakened my interest in and love of lace and embroidery.” Treasuring those precious early years with her grandmothers, Maral kept learning any way she could on her own, improving and expanding her needlework skills including several non-Armenian embroidery techniques.

Like tens of thousands of Syrian Armenians during the Syrian Civil War, in 2015 Maral and her family moved from Aleppo to Armenia. Her life changed dramatically, yet her skills and creative vision never left her side, and she has become well known for developing and producing goods which combine traditional techniques in new ways—always with natural materials like cotton and wool. In 2018, she was a featured needlework artist at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival Armenia: Creating Home in Washington DC. Today, she employs other Syrian Armenian women living in Armenia due to both the high demand for her handwork designs and her drive to preserve and share Armenian culture with the world.