Homeland Development Initiative Foundation - HDIF

A woman wandered into the HDIF office on Friday and showed us this beautiful piece of intricate lacework. Not uncommon, but still very impressive. I thought of how over a decade ago, HDIF helped turn crochet work from a hobby into a small industry in Armenia. We have well over 100 crocheters today. Can we do the same with lacework? Does the fashion industry here and abroad need lacework by the meter? Can lace be made using local fine wool thread under a circular model? Can we build a value chain? I look at this, and I see potential, I see incredible storytelling, heritage, history. Intrigued!

Wooly buddies!!! From Amasia, hand crocheted in natural, undyed Armenian sheep’s wool, and the best of buddies!! Destined to become bag charms and key tags, perhaps more. Welcome to the wool world, guys!
wool

New delivery! These exquisite hand woven carpet coasters in 100% natural wool are popular! They sold out, so we had to scramble to get more…and now we know more about which patterns are popular, too!

HDIF has plunged into the Halloween mood and have a poll we want you to vote on. A good friend runs in the Philadelphia area, and wants a series of Halloween merch from us. The question is, do we want spooky or cute? Which of these three cats do you like best?

- SkeleKitten
- Cutie Kitty
- Spooky Black Kitty

We’ve used Google images for inspiration on this. In addition to cats, we will have ghosts, spiders, pumpkins, grim reapers, and bats. I wanted a skull and cross bones, but they thought it was too spooky! I like spooky!

Wrapped in wool. Rain expected all weekend, been a demanding week. Nothing says comfy more than a hand woven wool blanket from Amasia.

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Our little crocheted lambs love sniffing at our crocheted sunflower coasters!

Both of these are finely crafted by women from Artsakh.

This is the view from my desk here at the HDIF office in Erebouni, with the famous drinking fountain across the street. Through this door today, we’ve had three neighboring businesses asking for change, a delivery from Koghb, a pick up from Kapan, a delivery guy looking for the Japanese fast food place next door, a neighbor looking to borrow a charger and we’re expecting a Fedex delivery from China. Busy! Love the level of activity!!