Reflections, Echoes & Aspirations • Jan Beaney & Jean Littlejohn
Limited Quantity of Signed Print Editions Available!
The book, Reflections, Echoes and Aspirations chronicles the sketch and stitch journey of Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn through the ups and downs of the Covid pandemic. Drawing inspiration from the moment, they doubled down on their creativity, producing a body of work that was inspired by their immediate surroundings, reflective moments, detailed perception of the mundane and ordinary, and reaction to the time and events.
$17.50
‘the more you look,
the more you see’.
In this book we have reflected on ways in which we have developed new styles of working with familiar materials such as soluble fabrics and velvets, the use of the embellishing machine and layering techniques as we meet the challenge of working on fresh ideas with complex demands.
We hope that by sharing our processes and thoughts with you we might encourage you to work on more prolonged themes and push ideas further into extended bodies of work. When ideas develop over time on a significant theme the work may be frustrating but ultimately much more satisfying.
The word ‘challenge’ echoes throughout the book and whilst it is clear that challenging work may cause frustration, when it succeeds the sense of satisfaction is immense. In this book we will explain some of our challenges to you as well as our motivations and inspirations and hope that they will echo with you.
It is so often true that the best ideas happen at the busiest moments and we have long recommended that keeping ideas in sketchbooks, notebooks or visual diaries as the best way of ensuring that good thoughts don’t become forgotten. If the ideas remain exciting over a prolonged period, they may be worth further exploration. This has certainly worked for us.
We were fortunate to have the desire to work and able to become involved in several substantial pieces. We quickly realised that working was essential to our wellbeing and the meditative nature of stitching a positive factor of coping.
By bringing a few years of experience and fresh eyes to a topic, a new interpretation or perhaps a new theme, a body of work can emerge. We could call this time ‘a glimpse back or a big leap forward’.
BOOK 27 by Jan Beaney & Jean Littlejohn
50 pages full colour illustrations paperback.
First published by Double Trouble Enterprises 2022
© Jan Beaney & Jean Littlejohn 2022
ISBN: 978-0-9559959-8-9
Jan Beaney & Jean Littlejohn • About the Authors
Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn are internationally acclaimed textiles artists, authors and educators. For more than forty years the duo know as “Double Trouble Enterprises” has been challenging traditional notions of embroidery and stitch by working with soluble fabrics, mixed media, bonding, printing, embellishing and collage and extensive use of color development and journaling to great success. Founding members of the 62 Group of Textile Artists, featured instructors at Callaway Gardens School of Needle Arts, City & Guilds (London), Fellows of the Society of Designer Craftsmen (UK) and Presidents emeritus of the Embroiderers’ Guild (UK), Jan and Jean continue their work in inspiring stitch artists of all ages with print books, digital books, and a wide range of DVDs and streaming workshops.
Learn more about Jan and Jean in their interview with TextileArtist.org
Visit their Double Trouble Enterprises Website
