our origin story

The Armenian Needlelace Initiative is a collaboration between co-founders Deborah Valoma and Elise Youssoufian.

We came together as strangers with a shared goal—to reclaim an art form in jeopardy. Individually and in partnership, we research the tradition of Armenian needlelace through studying existing scholarship, conducting field research and interviews, and honing our own needlelace skills.

We first met in 2022 in Berkeley, California on the shores of Strawberry Creek—a riverlet once filled with salmon that still flows through Lisjan (Ohlone) territory from the hills to the bay (see video). We had never met, but Deborah easily found Elise because—as she does frequently out in the world—Elise was making needlelace. We sat on the grass under the summer sun and the conversation flowed swiftly; we discovered synergies in a dizzying flood of recognition. As artists, scholars, writers—and descendants of genocide survivors—we immediately shared a common language of the heart. Deborah dances, Elise sings. Deborah weaves, Elise writes poetry. Deborah gardens, Elise practices aikido.

We work with thread as a tool of cultural continuity and intergenerational healing. Before we met, Deborah sought out needlelace kindred spirits in the United States and Türkiye; Elise crossed paths with them in Türkiye and Armenia. After joining forces, we pursued our research in new ways—out of which this initiative emerged. Through perseverance and serendipity, we continue to forge an intellectual and creative collaboration rooted in needlelace as an embodied ancestral practice.