​​Ethnic Textile Art

Armenian Interlacing is a stitch that has been seen in many cultures, and called by many different names. This stitch reflects the wide dispersal of the Armenian peoples, and speaks to the resilience of their culture. I choose to call this stitch “Armenian Interlacing” because, in the source material I used, the most explicit examples were created by Armenian women. The complexity of the stitched examples shown in these sources, as well as the sheer number of shapes and lines shown indicates an in-depth understanding and exploration of this technique by these Armenian women. 

 

Armenian Interlacing originates in the city of Marash, found in the territory known as the “Kingdom of Cilicia”, which today is a part of Turkey.  Armenian interlacing is one of three forms of embroidery practiced by the Marash, and is known in the culture as “Huesvadz gar”.  Another, less frequently recognized name is the “Hoormutch stitch” (also known as Sind or Hurmitch) in Indian cultures.  Paraphrased from the book “Armenian Needlelace and Embroidery”, Alice Kasparian explained how the technique migrated to two of these areas:  

 

The “Maltese Cross” is one of the most common motifs to feature this technique.  The motif was taught to the embroiderers of Malta by members of the Armenian colony that settled in Malta under the protection of the church in 395 AD.

 

The Mogul Emperor Akbar married an Armenian woman, and encouraged settlement by Armenians in India as early as 1562.  The embroidery technique was introduced to the Indian culture by part of the royal entourage.

   

A study of this technique led me to the history of Armenia.  It is a rich culture, with Armenia being the first ethnic group to accept Christianity as a state religion in 301 AD.  The culture has been subjected to numerous attempts at “ethnic cleansing”, including massacres in 1895 and throughout all of World War I.  Many Armenians hypothesize that after the 1915 massacre the lack of censure of the Turks by other world powers planted the seed for Jewish genocide in Hitler’s mind.  As a result of multiple wars and forced migrations, evidence of the Armenian culture and peoples are seen throughout the globe.  Even today, however, Armenians remain intact as a separately defined ethnic group, a testament to their resiliency as a peoples.

 

Examples of this technique found in the Indian culture show the interlacing being combined with Shisha (mica circles enclosed in rows of chain-stitching.)  Large textiles from India contain a central satin-stitched geometric panel, framed by a smaller interlaced border. This border is made up of alternating free-standing segments of interlacing, and comparably sized Shisha designs.

 

During the 1960’s, this stitch was frequently used on American clothing, where it was known as the “Double Herringbone” stitch, or sometimes as the “Maltese Cross”.  Unfortunately, further exploration of the large number of variances in this stitch was not carried out at that time.  Hopefully, the instructions provided here will increase the appreciation and use of this technique in contemporary times.