By Admin1 (admin) (pool-141-157-22-73.balt.east.verizon.net - 141.157.22.73) on Saturday, July 03, 2004 - 4:26 pm: Edit Post |
After two years in Armenia with the Peace Corps, working with the villagers Village whose work ethic they had come to respect, Peter and Stephanie Peter Kwasniewski returned with a personal commitment to help set up some kind of business that would give the women of Neomberyan some real earning stability
After two years in Armenia with the Peace Corps, working with the villagers Village whose work ethic they had come to respect, Peter and Stephanie Peter Kwasniewski returned with a personal commitment to help set up some kind of business that would give the women of Neomberyan some real earning stability
Serendipitous events have resulted in a business that is benefiting an entire villages in a remote corner of Armenia. It all started with a Peace Corps assignment to this village for Essex, Connecticut residents, Peter and Stephanie Kwasniewski. Village of NoemberyanArmenia is a small country, about the size of Maryland, located in the Trans-Caucasus Mountains, north of Iran. The village, Noemberyan, is in the northeast corner of Armenia near the border of Azerbaijan.
There, Peter and Stephanie worked with the local people for two years as a business consultant and English teacher respectively. They reported, “We found that the women and girls were skilled in the arts of petit needlepoint and embroidery. Needlepoint was a pastime that occupied them whenever they had a spare moment; while they were waiting for bread to finish baking in outdoor wood fired ovens or while sitting around their heating stove socializing with neighbors.”
Their workmanship and designs were superb and the work they produced, small 6 x 11 inch antique Armenian carpet designs, were sometimes sold to merchants who traveled through the villages buying craft items for a pittance. These foreign merchants sometimes paid for the goods, but many times left with a promise to pay and were never heard from again.
Local Peter says, “Because of the recent war with Azerbaijan, many families lack male heads of households and must scratch to make a living. Money is in extremely short supply and bartering labor for food is common. The small amounts paid, when they were paid, by the traveling merchants, were a welcome addition to the family income and in some cases, the only cash income.” Observing this, Peter immediately contacted American friends to see if anyone could find a use for the needlepoint rectangles. Some were sold, while the couple was still in the Peace Corps, to friends and family in the US who framed them as works of art. But he felt there should be a larger and more lucrative outlet for the exquisite work being produced.
After two years in Armenia, working with the villagers Village ladies and Stephaniewhose work ethic they had come to respect, Peter and Stephanie returned to Essex with a personal commitment to help set up some kind of business that would give the women of Neomberyan some real earning stability.
An opportunity presented itself when Peter met Cecil Lyon, the owner of Leatherman, Ltd., producer of a nationally known line of embroidered belts. After being encouraged by Mr. Lyon to pursue the possibility of needlepoint belts, Peter sat down and started researching what was available on the retail market. He discovered that most needlepoint belts were individually made and not readily available commercially. He decided that this was a perfect area to explore. As a designer/artist himself, and after conferring with friends in the fashion and design field, he plunged headlong into the task of crafting a totally original line of needlepoint belts.
Everyone who has seen the belts is intrigued with the detail and beauty of the workmanship and the fashionable designs. The needlepoint, is, of course, handmade in Armenia, and returned to Essex where it is sewn to a backing and finished with the highest quality leather and brass findings in the Leatherman Ltd., Essex, Connecticut production facility. Peter K Designs supplies all of the materials to the women and payment is made promptly when the work is completed.
Peter says that villagers are competing with each other for the opportunity to make the belts, since the pay scale is many times higher than what they were previously paid by the merchants. Now that production is beginning in earnest and orders are flowing in, there is a great deal of communication between the villagers and Peter, thanks to internet service in the capital city of Armenia and relayed messages from there by phone to the village. Materials and the finished needlepoint make the four-hour trip to and from the Armenian capital of Yerevan, across the southern Caucasus Mountains by way of switchback roads to the village. Turn-around time is less than three weeks for personally monogrammed belts on receipt of an order.
Belts are available in a variety of design motifs. The belts may be monogrammed with three initials. They come packaged in a handsome pewter-like metal box ready to be gifted to a lucky recipient.
By GB Symmes (cpe-24-179-29-225.ash.nc.charter.com - 24.179.29.225) on Tuesday, September 07, 2004 - 2:28 pm: Edit Post |
I would like to purchase belts as described but have no idea where to find them or the prices or styles. Can you help me?
Do you ever make belts from supplied needlepoint?
Thanks, G. Symmes
By Admin1 (admin) (pool-141-157-13-188.balt.east.verizon.net - 141.157.13.188) on Tuesday, September 07, 2004 - 6:21 pm: Edit Post |
Belts are available at:
http://www.peterkdesigns.com/belts.html
You can contact them with your question at Info@peterkdesigns.com
Best Regards,
Admin1