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Craft Techniques of Armenia

The Depository documents 9 techniques in Armenia; by risk level: 1 critically endangered, 2 endangered, 5 vulnerable. Each record opens with a public summary; the full research record is free to view once registered.

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Food, Drink & Botanical

  • Armenian Brandy (Kanyak) DistillingFood, Drink & Botanical · Vulnerable

    The double-distillation and long barrel-aging of Armenian grape brandy, an industry founded in Yerevan in 1887 by cousins Nerses Tairyan and Vasily Tairov, who had studied winemaking in France and brought Charentais-style double-pot-still…

  • Lavash Tonir Bread BakingFood, Drink & Botanical · Vulnerable

    The communal, typically women-led hand-baking of lavash, Armenia's UNESCO-recognized thin oblong flatbread, in which simple flour-and-water dough is stretched over an oval cushion and slapped against the inner wall of a tonir — a conical…

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Weaving & Textiles

  • Armenian Carpet & Rug WeavingWeaving & Textiles · Endangered

    A knotted-pile carpet-weaving tradition documented in the Armenian Highland since at least the 7th century BCE, built around the double knot historically credited to Armenian weavers and known internationally as the Armenian or Ghiordes…

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Papercraft & Printing

  • Armenian Illuminated Manuscript PaintingPapercraft & Printing · Endangered

    A monastic tradition of hand-painted and gilded manuscript illustration reaching back to the creation of the Armenian alphabet in 405 CE, most celebrated in the work of 13th-century master Toros Roslin — called "the Michelangelo of…

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Musical Instruments

  • Duduk (Apricot Wood Wind Instrument) MakingMusical Instruments · Vulnerable

    The shaping of the duduk, Armenia's double-reed woodwind instrument, from apricot wood aged and dried for twenty to thirty years to achieve the density and stability its characteristic warm, melancholic tone requires — a tradition in which…

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Ceramics & Pottery

  • Jerusalem Armenian CeramicsCeramics & Pottery · Vulnerable

    A hand-painted ceramic tile and pottery tradition born in Jerusalem in 1919, when Kutahya-trained Armenian ceramicist David Ohanessian brought master potter Nishan Balian Sr.

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Stone & Gemstone Carving

  • Khachkar Stone-Cross CarvingStone & Gemstone Carving · Vulnerable

    The hand-carving of khachkars, upright memorial steles bearing an ornamented cross above a solar disc or rosette and framed by intricate botanical and interlace patterning, cut from local stone by Armenian master carvers since the 9th…

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Embroidery & Lace

  • Marash Embroidery (Woven Stitch)Embroidery & Lace · Extinct — Revival Exists

    A geometric needlework technique originating in the historic Armenian city of Marash, in Cilician Armenia, built around a demanding "secret" or "woven" stitch in which thread passes along the same path four times — only the first two rows…

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Metalwork & Jewelry

  • Sev-Savat Armenian Niello SilverworkMetalwork & Jewelry · Critically Endangered

    A shallow-engraving decorative silverwork technique historically centered in the Armenian city of Van, in which a design is cut into a silver surface and filled with niello, a black alloy of sulfur, copper, silver, and lead melted into the…

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