references

introduction

The recommended texts listed below enrich our understanding of Armenian needlelace traditions, including millennia of matrilineal and cultural histories, as well as meanings of lace patterns and symbols. 

A review of English-language publications on Armenian needlelace reveals limited results. Some texts are instructional, while others offer brief historical overviews, but few authors offer in-depth art historical or ethnographic approaches that analyze the role of needlelace in Armenian women’s lives. One notable exception is Anush Sharambeyan’s chapter “Needle Arts” in Armenian Folk Arts, Culture, and Identity (2001). Literature on Armenian thread craft often discusses embroidery, weaving, spinning, dyeing, and printing in some detail—but provides only passing mention of lace making. 

Moreover, unlike the texts listed below, works on the broader subject of lace typically pose distinctly Eurocentric perspectives. For example, in discussing various lace techniques termed “needlelace,” they often point to a form of needlelace popular in Renaissance Europe that is more akin to embroidery than to earlier Eastern Mediterranean and Southwest Asian knotted needlelace forms. Or they only briefly, dismissively, or incorrectly mention such genres without explanation or analysis.

recommended readings

Abrahamian, Kamee. “Herstories of Divine Love.” The Armenian Review: Queering Armenian Studies 58, nos. 1–2 (2018): 163–180.

Aposhian, Hena. “Threading Traditions: Meet the Artists Weaving New Life into Armenian Embroidery.” Armenian Weekly. July 8, 2025.

Armenian, Gassia. “Knots that Tie Communities Together.” HALI, no. 217 (2023): 96-99.

Armenian Embroidery: Echoes from the Past. Beirut: Armenian Relief Cross of Lebanon, 1999.

Chrisman-Campbell, Kimberly. “An Unbroken Thread: The Story of Armenian Lace.” Ornament Magazine. August 21, 2023.

Davtyan, Serik. Հայկանկան Ժանյակ (Armenian Lace). Yerevan: Armenian USSR Academy of Sciences, 1966.

Deacon, Deborah A. and Paula E. Calvin. “The Middle East and Central Asia.” In War Imagery in Women’s Textiles: A Worldwide Study of Weaving, Knitting, Sewing, Quilting, Rug Making and Other Fabric Arts, 158-192. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2014.

Der Hovanessian, Diana. “Armenian Needlework.” In Songs of Bread, Songs of Salt, 49. New York: Ashod Press, 1990. 

Dickson, Elena. Mediterranean Knotted Lace. Bowral, Australia: Sally Milner Publishing Pty Ltd, 2005.

Hickman, Patricia Lynette. “Turkish Oya.” Master’s thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1977.

“Isabel Kaprielian-Churchill.” Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. Accessed April 24, 2025.

Karanian, Matthew. Historic Armenia After 100 Years: Ani, Kars, and the Six Provinces of Western Armenia. Northridge, CA: Stone Garden Press, 2015.

Kasparian, Alice Odian. Armenian Needlelace and Embroidery: A Preservation of Some of History's Oldest and Finest Needlework. McLean, VA: EPM Publications, 1983.

Margaryan, Ashot et al. “Eight Millennia of Matrilineal Genetic Continuity in the South Caucasus.” Current Biology 27, no. 13 (2017): 2023–2028.

Mkhitaryan, Lusine. Հայկական Ասեցնագործ Ժանյակ: Վարպետության Դասեր (Armenian Needle Lace: Master Classes). Yerevan: Zangak, 2018.

Papanikolopoulos, Katerina. “The Architecture of Armenian Lace: In Conversation with Gassia Armenia.” Athens Design Forum, 2024.

Sharambeyan, Anush. “Needle Arts.” In Armenian Folk Arts, Culture, and Identity, edited by Levon Abrahamian and Nancy Sweezy, 165–174. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.

Tashjian, Nouvart. Priscilla Armenian Lace Book. Boston: Priscilla Publishing Company, 1923.

“Threads of Heritage: The Timeless Art of Armenian Embroidery.” MOSAIC, June 27, 2024. 

Tokmajian, Hrazdan. Այնթապի ասեղնագործութիւն / Ayntab Needlework, Part A and B. Aleppo and Yerevan: Grtasiradz Cultural Association, 2015.

Valoma, Deborah. “Janyak: Armenian Art of Knots and Loops: Curated by Gassia Armenian, Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles, April 23, 2023–February 25, 2024.” TEXTILE: Journal of Cloth and Culture 22, no. 5 (2024): 757–61.

Valoma, Deborah. “Thread Memory.” In 23:5, edited by Erdem İlgi Akter. Istanbul, Türkiye: Hrant Dink Foundation, 2026.

Մենք Էնք, Մեր Կարերը… (We Are Our Stitches). Yerevan: Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports of the Republic of Armenia, and Teryan Cultural Center, 2020.

Youssoufian, Elise. “Armenian Needlelace as Spirit.” Essay, California Institute of Integral Studies, 2021 (unpublished).