SARA SOHIGIAN ARCHIVE

Beginning in 2018 Deborah Valoma embarked on an ongoing project to collect and archive materials from her Armenian family, including photographs and written materials to help contextualize the more than one hundred Armenian textiles inherited from her grandmother Sara Sohigian Magarian. The textile collection includes examples of weaving, sewing, embroidery, cutwork, crochet, knitting, tatting, bobbin lace, and most importantly, Armenian needlelace. Some were notated by her grandmother with makers’ names, which allowed Deborah to discover a network of shared materiality between women in her extended family. The oldest, dating back more than one hundred and twenty years were made in Ottoman Armenia before exile without attribution; others made in the diaspora by those who survived.

Women's Coin PocketMen's or Women's socksMen's SashWomen's ShoesArmenian Needlelace DoilySashArmenian Needlelace DoilyArmenian Needlelace Pillowcase TrimArmenian Needlelace Trimmed HandkerchiefsBaby Carriage CoverSara Sohigian MagarianFrame for PhotographsApronPaisley Shawl