What’s Next?

What’s Next for JennJill Designs?

As you no doubt noticed, nearly half of the items currently offered by JennJill Designs are Christmas-related. If you’ve wondered what Jennifer will have available after the Christmas season passes, you’re not alone. Here’s a sneak peak at the new product lines she’s planning for the winter and spring months of 2011:

Clay Creations

While JennJill Designs’ Clay Creations line currently includes only Christmas ornaments, it will soon be expanded to include a whole line of beautiful accessories, from jewelry pieces such as pins and cuff links, to home goods including trinket and jewelry boxes and customized wall plaques.

Jennifer loves working with clay canes – rolls of clay colors that have been carefully assembled to create beautiful patterns, from leaves and flower petals to butterfly wings and decorative designs. These canes are then sliced to reveal the delicate color patterns contained inside, and each slice is layered to create a mosaic-like design. (The Decorated Cross is one example of a Christmas ornament design using clay canes.) Many of Jennifer’s non-Christmas designs will utilize this ancient technique of clay decoration.

Quilted Accessories

Jennifer had never quilted a day in her life until 2006, when she met her (now) mother-in-law, Monica. Monica was shocked that, despite her love of sewing, Jennifer had never quilted. So Monica began giving Jennifer quilting tools and accessories for every birthday and Christmas, and Jennifer couldn’t resist the temptation to begin using these new toys. Soon, Jennifer was quilting more than she was sewing, and the JennJill Designs Quilted Accessories are the result.

The Quilted Accessories line will include not just the obvious purses, wallets, and tote bags but will also incorporate wall hangings and elegant decorations for the home. A few years ago, Jennifer was introduced to a quilting technique called Raggedy Reverse, which allows the ragged edges of the fabric to be incorporated into the overall design of the piece. Jennifer has already started designing an Easter wall hanging that employs this technique.

Stay tuned to next month’s newsletter to see prototypes Jennifer is developing for the Quilted Accessories line.

Accessible Accessories

The Accessible Accessories line is the product line Jennifer is most looking forward to developing. The possibility of helping people with her work is incredibly exciting!

In October of 2008, Jennifer’s mother fell down a flight of stairs, fracturing her C5 vertebra and suffering a severe spinal cord injury at the C4 vertebra. While she has made a miraculous recovery and today walks with just two canes (praise God!), her rehabilitation process brought to Jennifer’s attention the incredible need for functional and beautiful accessories designed with disabled and injured individuals in mind. Every item in the Accessible Accessories line will be designed as a direct result of the experiences Jennifer’s mother had while on the road to recovery.