Works of Great Armenian Wizard Edward Ghazaryan

The Museum of folk art is situated in Abovyan Square, near the monument of the Armenian visionary writer Khachatur Abovyan. The center’s collection recruitment works were done by the efforts of the prominent figures of Armenian fine arts, such as M. Saryan, H. Kojoyan, H. Babayan and others. However, this unique center of Armenian culture and lifestyle that presents the samples of Armenian decorative-applied art and paintings is named after Hovhannes Sharambeyan, who actually founded it in 1978.
The collection of the museum, which consists of 12000 exhibits, gives the opportunity to have a clear idea of the various branches of art and their development stages. The museum has 4 halls for permanent exhibitions. The number of items being exhibited in these halls is nearly 2000. Having entered the museum from the first steps you feel the homely atmosphere as if you enter a big Armenian house each corner of which presents the history of a branch of art. The first hall houses Armenian embroidered tablecloths and ancient pitchers. Here you will find ancient and modern Armenian carpets and rugs with different decoration patterns, as well as threads of different colors and a weaving loom. In Armenian reality the carpets are symbolic in their usage. Among them the most widespread one is the carpet-cross. A unique series of rugs make a category of special carpets called vishapagorg (dragon carpet). People used to hang them on the walls of their rooms as they believed that the carpets with sacred symbols would protect the family from misfortunes.
The first floor of the museum also houses a gift shop where you can buy the exact copies of the exhibits. The next hall presents a rich collection of Armenian silver ornaments and silver utensils. One of the inseparable elements of Armenian traditional lifestyle is wooden churn (khnotsi) with the help of which Armenian women used to make butter from yogurt. In this hall you can also see spinning wheals, ceramic ware, torches and other household items.
The pride of the museum is the collection of Edward Ghazaryan’s micro-miniatures which will not leave visitors indifferent. Edward Ghazaryan, who was awarded by a title of “A great wizard in small Armenia”, presents a wonderland of works made on the smallest items. With the help of a microscope you will witness a real miracle; the master has built movable and stationary worlds on a rice grain or on thin hair or in the needle hole, such as the caravan of camels, Paganini playing the violin and David Copperfield making tricks in the needle hole, the highway with cars in a half piece of a rice grain, wooden violins of Stradivarius on a man’s hair, the crystal cross-stone with the portraits of Armenian thinkers and so on. It is noteworthy that he has worked with hand-made tools which are the common drills, scalpels and tweezers only 100 times smaller than the original ones.
It is impossible to express with words the admiration and wonder that you feel walking in the halls of the museum. Each visitor must see all these wonders with their own eyes, after which they will pack a whole world of beautiful memories to take with them from Armenia.