It was not surprising to learn in my conversation with Jan Shade Beach, that she and Shelly Comiskey are friends. Of course! But then again, after talking to Jan and hearing her story about her life it wouldn't be surprising to learn that she has a gift for making friends.
Take for instance the story of meeting her husband, David. While traveling for business she happened to sit next to him on an airplane! After 4 hours, they found common ground in many aspects of their lives. Though they lived in different cities, in entirely different parts of the country, fortune had it that after being long-distant friends his business relocated to her area. Three years later they were married!
That's just the tip of the iceberg for the many styles of Jan Shade Beach's life. Here's a quick montage of her photos she shared, so you can get to know her too.
And you can see why it's hard to catch up with her!
We could also very well call her the Queen of all things Christmas as you might tell from her recent success stories with Henry Glass Fabrics with
Holiday Frost (flannel),
Holiday Magic, and
Holiday Traditions.
She has stepped out of the holiday box with the latest collection called
Moose Lodge, though you still notice scenes of winter in the designs.
So that's a little bit about whom she is, and what she does. Next the most anticipated question in any interview with a designer is "how do you get inspired?"
And of course the response is "from everything." Jan is a true testimony of that statement. She recounted a tale of a recent trip (well 2 years ago, anyway) to New York where she was exhibiting at the Surtex show. While there she noticed a single tree wrapped up in what appeared to be a sweater around its trunk.
We know now that this is an example of the fine art of
'yarn bombing.' Though in its infancy at the time of Jan's discovery, she was immediately drawn to the unusual nature of this art form, and began to incorporate the design style into her own work.
When not designing fabric for Henry Glass, Jan is busy creating illustrations for other types of surface pattern use. Here is a picture of some recent projects - again - her favorite thing...Christmas!
Jan's fun and notorious claim to fame is seeing her own designs on an episode of NBC's "Saturday Night Live" with Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon wrapped in the Holiday Frost fabric for a skit called "Bring it on down to Wrappinville."
And here she is in her natural habitat, in her home studio at her desk, with a view out the window. Friend of Henry Glass Fabrics, and now you... Jan Shade Beach:
To celebrate this introduction of you, our dear readers to our designer Jan Shade Beach, we are giving away this sweet little bundle of five, you guessed it... Christmas fabrics.
