Improvisia

Combining traditional motifs with modern designs and bold colors, each piece of our first collection, Improvisia, was designed spontaneously and collectively by the woman weavers of Goris Handmade, a social enterprise based in Verishen village, Syunik Province – no pre-designs or drawings.

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About Improvisia

"When you weave you find yourself in another world. You forget about your worries. Sometimes you don’t even hear the conversations of the weavers next to you, because you're somewhere else while you’re weaving. You’re always ‘in’ the rug when you weave. You’re a part of it." - Anush Arzanyan, Designer & Weaver

High above the rocky cliffs of Goris in Armenia’s southern Syunik Province, in Verishen village, is the modest workshop of Goris Handmade, where a small collective of local women are keeping the traditions of Armenian rug and textile making alive.

The town of Goris and the surrounding villages operate mostly on subsistence-based agriculture; the largest resource in the area is sheep. The region’s rich heritage of rug making reflects the value wool once held here. It’s here in Syunik, and in neighboring Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), where Khndzoresk rugs originate, known internationally as “cloud band” rugs. Locally, they’re known as vishapagorg – “dragon rugs.”

"I remember seeing local people weaving all across our village. There were always rugs rolled out in our home as a child. I remember seeing local people weave rugs so that they could include them in their daughters’ dowries." - Anush

For millennia, fleece, wool, and wool textiles, including rugs, maintained a cult-like status among the peoples of the Armenian Highlands and the wider region. However, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the use of wool and woolen products, once a fundamental part of local culture, has all but disappeared. Wool sheared from sheep was seen as a waste by local shepherds and largely thrown away.

“There used to be wool piled high on beds in every home you entered. Any time there was a reason to celebrate, we would take a wool blanket with us to give as a gift to our neighbors. Wool was our wealth. Back then people wouldn’t give money for gold. They would give money for wool. Now people don’t value those blankets, they don’t value wool.” - Alvard Shalunts,
Thread Maker

Enter the women of Goris Handmade. To revitalize use of wool and bolster local economies, they purchase raw wool from farmers in the 8 villages surrounding Goris, washing and hand spinning it into the threads used to make the rugs of our first collection. The results are beautiful pieces that are handmade using 100% organic materials.

"We work very hard to make sure our rugs are perfect. We’re persistent, we strive to make them perfect. We’re reviving the work of our ancestors after all, so that it does not disappear. Weaving has been all but forgotten in Armenia. Young people do not want to weave. But I love it.” - Anush

Goris Handmade is now one of a select few professional rug making collectives still left in all of Armenia. The designs of Improvisia were completely improvised by the women – they simply chose ornaments to work with and began weaving, deciding the final colors and compositions of the flat weaves as they wove, advising and supporting one another throughout the process with no drawing or pre-designs.

"We know our Armenian ornaments well. I recognize them, so they come instinctively, I don’t need a drawing or map. These rugs that we’re weaving – I don’t look at pre-designs, I simply weave."
- Ani Muradyan,
Designer & Weave

While the bright colors and compositions of Improvisia’s individual pieces are not traditional, the ornaments used are, coming to us from the distant past and reflecting both the natural and supernatural experiences and beliefs of local people.

"When a rug is complete and we cut it from the loom, it’s a celebration. Everyone congratulates the weaver, it’s very fun. We’re like a family here, we celebrate each other’s achievements. When I weave, everyone is living that experience with me. ‘What happened Ani? Is it good? Is it bad?’ We live with each other here. I’m not weaving by myself in a mental and spiritual sense. While we weave we go and see each other’s work. I look at Nara’s work, Nara looks at my work. We help each other all the time, we encourage each other, we give each other hope."
- Ani

In the years following independence from the Soviet Union, several local wool processing and rug making initiatives kept this 4,000-year-old tradition going in the Syunik province. All have shut down operations. Goris Handmade is the only collective still actively creating in this part of Armenia.

“Before the factory where I learned how to weave closed, there were around 70 professional weavers in our region. Now they’re spread out everywhere doing different work. I don’t know any of them that are still weaving. There’s no work. If there were more opportunities to weave, they would return to weaving.” - Ani

The act of creating has taken on new meaning for the collective in the aftermath of the second Artsakh war in 2020 and the forced displacement of Artsakh’s entire Armenian population in September 2023. Their workshop was used to temporarily house refugees from Artsakh fleeing Azerbaijan’s genocidal onslaught in September. One of the weavers, Milena Ordiyants, and her family lost their home in Berdzor, Artsakh in 2020. Like thousands of families from Artsakh, they are now rebuilding their lives in Armenia. By purchasing through The Rug Code, you provide the women of Goris Handmade with meaningful, stable work.