By Anton Geissler (Hetq intern)

Tucked among Soviet-era high-rises behind Yerevan’s Vardanants Street—where walkways are lined with restaurants and bars that seem lifted from Paris—a family-run company continues Armenia’s traditional wool-processing methods.

Alka Cleaning Service has been in the business for twenty-seven years. It both washes and processes the wool, making products such as blankets, pillows, and mattresses.

Its managing director, who requested not to be named, tells Hetq that the company exports abroad, including Germany, but primarily washes, dries, and fluffs other people’s wool.

Woolen blankets must be washed every two or three years. The company charges AMD 5,000 (US$ 13.80) for washing and an additional AMD 3,000 (US$ 8.28) for fluffing. 

The process takes one to two days and can be completed either traditionally by hand or with modern machines for fluffing and sewing.

The company’s managing director began working at age fifteen and describes herself as self-taught. “I became interested in doing this work myself, but nobody in my family worked with wool,” she tells Hetq.

Woolen blankets are increasingly being replaced with alternative synthetic fillings. “It is lighter and easier to transport. Wool especially is used less because it is relatively expensive,” the managing director of Alka Cleaning Service explains.

Today, up to 90% of Armenian wool is burned as waste due to a lack of processing infrastructure. Small companies like Alka Cleaning Service continue an ancient Armenian tradition and combat the waste of this natural resource.