Meet Jan Mott
As a young girl growing up in rural upstate New York, Jan was surrounded by a family of artisans consisting of a variety of artistic talents from painting to sewing and woodworking. Being a country girl, she was always surrounded by natures landscape and wildlife.
As a high schooler, she met her now partner in life and business Jay Harbachuk. They dated, but for a short period and moved on to focus on their education. Jan, after graduating high school, pursued her education, attending college to become a graphic designer. After graduating from college, she took her artistic talent home and began working as a print media advertising artist for a large local department store, illustrating home goods merchandise for newspaper ads.
Then she moved on to pursue a career in graphic arts, marketing and advertising sales for a large nationally known newspaper chain. She worked with local businesses developing advertising campaigns and also worked with the editorial department illustrating for special news features.
Twenty-five years into her career, Jan and Jay re-met. Their relationship would become much different than before. They combined their talents and started an antique business, "Snoopn2gether".
Now, as life and business partners and best friends, Jan and Jay spend their private time working in the flower garden and taking country rides pursuing antique treasures and more inspirations to share in the near future.
Crane Design
About 11 years ago Jan discovered an age-old textile art called penny rugs while out antiquing. It renewed her interest in textiles and started to dabble in the art of wool applique. Wanting to use her illustrative talents, she started to design, following her heart of realism and nature, making her creations more than a stitching project, but a piece of art.
Her style started to catch on with stitchers across the country wanting to replicate her designs. Hence developing the pattern company know as" Crane Design". Over time she expanded the line to include realistic country & seaside patterns to include a large selection of realistic bird designs, that everyone can relate to from their own backyard. She has also developed a line that carries the nature theme into punch-needle ... And now to a fabric collection.
Crane Design offers nearly 200 patterns sold throughout the US and Canada to quilt shops and stitching enthusiast. Jan through trunk shows and social platforms has gained a strong fellowship and inspiration from shop owners to the stitching community. She believes it is important to work one-on-one with the quilt shops and is passionate about doing marketing for and with them so that they can continue to be a destination for quilters in the future.
Jan's Artistic Mediums and Inspiration
· Jan is well-skilled in various art mediums from wool applique to clay and watercolors. Her work is greatly inspired by nature,
particularly the Atlantic Ocean along the New England coast from Maine to
Massachusetts, and her very own backyard.
"Country Journey" by Jan Mott is a 15-SKU collection that features a novelty toss, pinwheel ombre, wheat star calico, winding vines, and more. Additionally, there are a border stripe and 24" x 44" banner panel. Also included are two FREE quilt projects (a quilt and pillows). Ships in January 2020.
· This collection was produced based off of a four-part series that was originally created as a wool design in four separate panels as displayed in this panoramic series. It is incredible to see how this line has transformed from wool to illustration. Jan worked with Jaftex Lead Designer, Lisa Loessel to embellish the collection so that it was more appealing for the cotton version by emphasizing more elements of art.
