What Is a Khachkar? The Armenian Cross-Stone Behind My Woven Tapestries

A khachkar is an Armenian cross-stone: a carved stone slab with a cross at its center, usually surrounded by rosettes, interlace and plant motifs. The name joins two Armenian words, khach (cross) and kar (stone). Khachkars have marked graves, churches and important events in Armenia since the Middle Ages.

My new wall tapestries take their design from this tradition. They are khachkar-inspired, not khachkars, and that difference is worth explaining.

What a khachkar is and what it does

A khachkar is a stele, a standing stone carved on one face. The cross sits in the middle, usually resting on a rosette or wheel that UNESCO describes as a symbol of the sun or of eternity. Around it, carvers add plant and geometric patterns, and sometimes saints or animals.

Khachkars do real work. They serve as memorials, as a focal point for prayer and as markers of events a community wanted remembered. Once carved, a khachkar is set up in a short religious ceremony, where it is blessed and anointed.

No two are alike. UNESCO counts more than 50,000 khachkars in Armenia, each with its own pattern. The craft was added to UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage in 2010. It is still passed from master to apprentice, in Armenia and in the diaspora.

In 2008, the Metropolitan Museum of Art put a 12th-century khachkar from Lori on display. It was the first time a khachkar had been shown in a US museum. The stone is a block of basalt nearly eight feet tall, with the symbols of the four evangelists beneath the cross.

Why the khachkar was missing from my collection

A khachkar is unmistakably Armenian. It carries the faith, the history and the carving tradition in one form.

My shop is built around Armenian heritage: the alphabet, pomegranates, Mount Ararat, prayer and faith. The cross-stone had no place in it yet, and it should have.

I don't sell statues. I sell woven textiles. So I brought the khachkar into the collection the way I know how: as a tapestry you can hang in your own home.

From carved stone to woven cotton

Stone and thread work differently. A carver builds a khachkar through depth, cutting away stone so that light and shadow reveal the pattern. A woven piece is flat, so the design has to rely on color, outline and contrast.

The designs keep what a khachkar is known for: a central cross, rosettes and interlace. They add pomegranates and grapevines from the wider Armenian decorative tradition.

Each piece is made to order by my production partner and woven with cotton threads rather than printed. Up close, the detail is softer than carved stone and softer than a flat print. That is the nature of weaving.

The four khachkar tapestries

Each design takes the cross-stone in a different direction.

• Khachkar Cross Wall Tapestry in an Arch: the cross sits inside a pointed arch, framed like a niche, with ԽԱՉՔԱՐ (khachkar) woven into the arch band. Terracotta, navy and olive green, with pomegranates and rosettes.
• Teal Armenian Cross Wall Tapestry: the same arched composition in teal, slate blue and antique gold, with plum pomegranates. It suits a room built around cooler colors.
• Armenian Khachkar Wall Tapestry with Doves: two doves hold a banner reading ԽԱՉՔԱՐ above an interlaced cross, with pomegranates, grape clusters and rosettes on a deep green ground.
• Hayastan Armenian Cross Wall Tapestry: ՀԱՅԱՍՏԱՆ (Hayastan, the Armenian name for Armenia) runs across the top, above two doves and a cross set between columns. Muted brown, plum and antique gold.

All four come in three sizes, from 52 × 37 inches to 80 × 60 inches. Each can be personalized with a family name or a dedication. Armenian text is emailed to you for approval before anything is woven.

If you're deciding where one should hang, our guide to displaying a Christian wall tapestry respectfully is worth reading first.

A cross-stone, not a copy

A khachkar belongs to its place. It is carved from local stone, blessed, and set up for a reason. A tapestry can't be that, and it shouldn't pretend to be.

What it can do is keep the form in view at home, where your family sees it every day. You'll find all four designs in the Wall Hangings collection.