Anahit Atoyan has been sewing and knitting dolls of beloved Armenian characters for children and adults alike for most of her life. 

From the village of Dsegh in Armenia's Lori Province — the birthplace of beloved Armenian author Hovhannes Tumanyan —, Anahit Atoyan doesn't like to remain idle: her hands are constantly at work. She embroiders, and with her knitting needles she brings to life Komitas, Sayat-Nova, Tumanyan, and the characters from his fairy tales, Unlucky Panos, Anush, Saro…

Even the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, when gas and electricity were scare and poverty was widespread, Anahit's family did not bother her as she worked on her creations: "My family's great. If I sat in my corner to do my work, no one bothered me."

Anahit Atoyan

Anahit acquired an apartment next to the Hovhannes Tumanyan Museum, where she continues her work of 55 years. She is self-taught: she didn't learn to stitch from anyone, though today she has several small and large works. She also sews clothing, the smaller versions of which the Anush and Saro dolls wear. "I have been given the honor to work adjacent to the [Hovhannes] Tumanyan Museum. Entering the museum, visitors become acquainted with everything of Tumanyan's, but when they come here in character, that's an all together different kind of comfort; I can't say how satisfying it is," she says. 

During an event dedicated to Tumanyan's 140th birthday, coming forth with about two dozen samples of her work, Anahit is awarded the title of National Master on the spot. "If you read Tumanyan, if you don't read and enter his world [at least] a few times, you will never do this kind of work. Watch The Old Blessing: its tree, its elderly, sitting under a tree, glasses in their hands, drinking wine. Until you don't read that, you won't understand how much to do and how to do it," she says. Often she removes the short inscriptions that accompany the dolls so that children visiting recognize the characters, and if they don't, they can read the inscriptions and recognize them. 

"When the prime minister came to Dsegh, it can be said he gave an order, that 'is this woman going to take it with her? Give her time, let this woman work'," says Anahit. Staff of the village community center promised to give her time, and now she teaches children how to knit. She has eight students and believes this number will grow. I ask, if you're an embroider, I assume you also paint. "Turn around, look at Masis, the swallow, the flowers… I painted those images and then went over them with yarn," she says.

Anahit, however, is not as pleased with the sale of her dolls. She says Armenian visitors recognize the characters, they know Tumanyan, but they don't make huge purchases — it's mainly the small items that are sold. And tourists from abroad don't recognize the characters and so don't purchase the dolls.

One by one she shows me the notebooks that contain various people's opinions about her work. The most impressive, according to Anahit, is the opinion of a nine-year-old child who wrote that he wouldn't swap her creations for anything. Several artists, Yervand Manaryan, Sos Sargsyan, Tsolak Kantegh, Vahram Tatikkyan, and others, have also highly praised Anahit's work. "If I speak with the people, the people in some way, even if they praise me a little, say some inspiring words, that for me is a plus. The work that I do in 4–5 days, I might be inspired and do it in one day," she says.

Despite her many years of experience, she doesn't stop learning. "I'm still learning. I learn from the elders. The young are occupied with [their] computers. That's why I say, culture, culture, culture. Let's try to connect the children to culture in every way possible."