Pop princess Sirusho - Armenian Reporter

Michael’s
family always
encouraged his
experimentations
and exposed him
to art.
people’s lives. “He was a thinking
designer who would create anything,”
Michael says. “There was
no boundary for him.”
What began as a trip
turned into a career
Some say there is no such thing as
an accident, but little else can explain
how Michael found his true
calling. At a crossroads between his
job at the Met and a burgeoning career
in the fine arts, he decided to
get on a plane and visit his brother,
John, and sister, Lousine, who ran
a loungewear company in India.
As
a tourist
in India,
Michael discovered
a profusion
of ancient crafts which
he thought were underappreciated
and underutilized.
“Working with craftsmen [in India]
was like Aladdin’s cave had
been opened up to me,“ Michael
explains. In India, he could work
with new materials and make
things he’d always dreamed of
making.
Initially he made five original
designs which included a bowl, a
shoehorn, a candle stand, and a
letter opener. When he brought
them back to New York, friends
encouraged him to think about
selling them.
At first Michael simply enjoyed
working with the artisans and
didn’t think of the process as a
business. It was the late 1980s, and
at the time a lot of metal designs
were beingproduced
and marketed
in New York. He met with a
designer rep who loved his work
and said, “If you can make it, I can
sell it.”
With his parents’ support, Michael
was never afraid to take
chances. “There was a solid rock
under my foot,” he says. “Something
about being Armenian, I always
say, is that there are carpets
under the carpets. There are so
many levels of security within the
Armenian network and family.”
Michael went back to India and
began production on 50 pieces
of each sample. In the following
month he secured his first orders,
at a New York gift show. Within
six months, his products were
C14 Armenian Reporter Arts & Culture 12/29/2007