Put a Dagestani design and a big pile of freshly spun Turkish, naturally dyed silk in front of talented Armenian embroiderers, and you might come up with something like the stunning textiles from renowned gallerist/artist Mehmet Çetinkaya. Along with his daughter Zehra and son Said, Çetinkaya is based in Istanbul, where he manages this exceptional Armenian-Turkish collaboration. Mehmet Çetinkaya starts with design. A Belgian Royal Academy graphics arts graduate, he pores over centuries-old textiles as he researches and travels through Central Asia, Anatolia, and the Caucasus. The two works on display were inspired by textiles from Dagestan, where generations of embattled peoples have held onto rugged mountains along the Caspian Sea. These are contemporary twists on open and captivating designs of the prized Kaitag, a silk-embroidered piece given to a newborn Dagastani girl for the three stages of life. Initially, the Kaitag is placed at the baby’s head as a form of protection against danger and evil; later, when she marries, the textile becomes a dowry piece, and finally, when she dies, it serves as a face covering. Çetinkaya is a master colorist, first and foremost. Before sending the silk over Mount Ararat to the Armenian side of the border, he meticulously dyes it in a subtle gradation of botanical colors. Horse Riders shows the rich hues of indigo he deftly created and Armenian artists so impeccably stitched. Two sets of masterful hands brought these rare textiles to life.Each kaitag is sewn by a single elderly Armenian artist who takes a year to embroider just one square meter of the design. She uses the traditional wooden hoop, needles, scissors, and thimbles. And she signs her work at the bottom right-hand corner, in Armenian.Surface Darning, as this laborious and exacting method is called, dates to the 16th-century Caucasus. Women have since pooled their knowledge and slowly revived it. They sew piles of stitches perfectly lined up to create needlework so fine and supple, it’s almost pillowed. People often confuse the superbly hand-stitched pieces as woven loom-produced. Each of these two outstanding works was sewn by an octogenarian woman.This cross-border cooperation is unusual. Turkish-Armenian Kaitags are rare, and their top collectors span from Australia and Japan to the United States.