Armenian Needle Lace with Emma Welty: Applied Needle Lace

Using a cloth base is a great way to practice more complicated needlelace patterns and techniques. Choose a piece of cloth that you can easily sew through. While ideally this lace can be used to ornament clothes and precious textiles, you may want to start on a piece of cloth or garment that you don’t mind making mistakes on. Emma will be doing the class demos with crochet thread and a chenille needle on plain weave cotton muslin, and encourages participants to use a piece of lightweight cloth with a hem, such as a bandana, t-shirt, handkerchief or a piece of cloth with a rolled or machine sewn hem.

This class is for ages 12+, and we encourage family members signing up together! Children must be able to tie a knot.

The Armenian needlelace knot evolved from a net-making technique on the eastern banks of the Mediterranean to a decorative lace knot. Janyak is made simply with a needle and thread. Because it is made with lightweight and commonly found materials, it is a craft that has survived the forced displacement of many generations of Armenians. Over the last century, the craft of Armenian needle lace has been painstakingly preserved within communities of the Armenian-American diaspora through intergenerational instruction, how-to books, exhibitions, and, in recent years, video tutorials.

Teaching Artist Bio

Emma Welty is an artist, researcher, educator and writer with a textile centered studio practice. Welty completed a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Fibers and Art History and an MFA/MA in Visual Art and Art History at Purchase College. Welty’s work utilizes ancestral traditions of Armenian carpet and needlelace to explore economies of labor, notions of “heirloom” and cultural transmissions within a digital diaspora. Welty has held residencies at the Newport Art Museum, Museum of Arts and Design and the Woodbury Public Library. Welty’s work has recently been exhibited in the Newport Art Museum, Studio Hill Gallery in Woodbury, CT and Piano Craft Gallery in Boston, Joseph Gross Gallery at the University of Arizona and the Gilbert Gallery at Miss Porter’s School.

Museum members receive a discount on tuition!

Financial Aid

Financial Aid is available. Please submit an application to the Education Director two weeks before class begins.