Armenian Needlelace: A Dance of Knots and Loops
presented by Elise Youssoufian
20 October 2024 at 3:30 pm New York time (UTC-4)
An invitation to register for this Zoom webinar will be sent to all current IOLI Members a week before the event.
As strong as it is delicate, Armenian needlelace is among humanity’s oldest and most intricate forms of needlework, evoking mountains and rainbows of home, and connecting ancestral lines throughout the Armenian diaspora worldwide.
Made with knots and loops of cotton or linen thread, the lace’s distinctive interlacing patterns — thought to trap or confuse evil spirits and intentions — also appear on ancient Armenian architecture and stone carvings, depicting Earth-honoring elements of culture and place to protect and adorn the sacred.
Through this presentation featuring historic and contemporary Armenian needlelace works, we can imagine the makers’ stories as we celebrate their immense skill and handiwork, their exuberant creativity, and their exceptional persistence.
Elise Youssoufian
Elise Youssoufian began learning her ancestral needlelace tradition with celebrated Armenian artisans in 2019 and has continued through countless hours of joyful practice ever since. Currently in a Women's Spirituality PhD program researching relationships between handwork and healing, Elise holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and is a board-certified therapeutic musician. As a healing-centered poet, weaver, scholar, and singer, she has been teaching since 2009 and offering needlelace workshops 2021 onward, in the US and Armenia, and is the curator of Armenian Needlelace: Poetry in Thread, a new exhibit at Berkeley's Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles (https://lacismuseum.org/collection/armenian_needlelace/).
Website: https://eliseyoussoufian.com/
Instagram: @eliseweaves (https://www.instagram.com/eliseweaves/ )