Who we are...

Janet Granger Designs is a company run by just two of us - Janet and Chris Granger. We live in a small village in Staffordshire, in the beautiful Peak District.

We set up the business in January 1996 and began selling miniature embroidery kits to make items for twelfth scale dollshouses. This business takes up virtually all our time, as anyone who has been self-employed will know, but when we get a few moments off, we do have some other interests. Here's a bit more about us:

JANET :
I had my first taste of doing embroidery when I was just four, and was designing at fourteen. I’ve always loved it. I had two exhibitions of needlework while in my teens. I left school at sixteen, frustrated with the academic direction I felt I was being pushed in. I worked in public libraries for seventeen years, then left to concentrate on marketing my range of miniature needlepoint carpet kits for collectors' doll's houses. My first book, "Miniature Needlepoint Carpets", featured 25 designs from this range, and was published by the Guild of Master Craftsmen in 1996. The second book, "Cross Stitch Kitchen Projects", was for full-size cross-stitch designs. Both books are now out of print.

The business soon expanded to include all kinds of miniature embroidery kit (footstools, firescreens, bellpulls, and so on), so that now we consider ourselves to be the leading UK miniature embroidery kit supplier.

In 2002, I completed an Open University degree course in Social Science, specialising in Social Policy and Criminology, obtaining First Class Honours - so now I am a Bachelor of Science as well as an embroidery designer (!). I feel I’ve now had my share of formal studying, although I still like finding things out, and always have several books on the go – I love reading, especially books on spirituality, and alternative therapies such as aromatherapy.

In 2009 I came across Universal Sufism, and the following year I decided to follow it as my spiritual path. I find it very broad-minded, helpful and applicable to daily life. The people I have met through the Sufi path are wonderful!

CHRIS:
I met Janet in 1991 and soon found that the doll's house 'bug' had 'bitten' me, too! I was once a science graduate (a very long time ago!) and worked as a scince teacher for over twenty years. I left teaching in the Spring of 1999 so that I could work full-time with Janet, providing some technical input into the partnership. I'm keen on website design and computers generally, so a lot of my time is spent playing ('working', Janet calls it) at the PC. The many tasks that a computer can assist with in a small business are usually tackled by me - but the designing is definitely Janet's special domain!

I'm very interested in music, and play the guitar every day. I own over a dozen different instruments, and love singing, too. I also follow the Sufi path now.

We both enjoy walking, which is particularly good as we live in such a lovely part of the country.We are both vegetarians, and are interested in alternative medicine and slower-paced lifestyles - we believe that you should enjoy the work you do, and that people should not be defined simply by their job title. We try to live simply, and take time to experience the important things in life.

Dances Of Universal Peace

Since 2009, we have become very involved with doing Dances Of Universal Peace. These are held at venues around the UK, and people who are in the know travel for miles to get to them.

What are they? You'd have to come and try them yourself - it's almost impossible to convey how good they make you feel, just with words. Suffice to say, if you try them once and would like dancing simple, gentle dances in a circle while singing sacred phrases, which are taken from all cultures around the world, and are looking for a way to get a deeper, more spiritual experience of life, in the company of people whom you will come to like so much that you want to hug them (after dancing for just one day!) - you will be 'hooked' !

We got so passionate about the dances that in 2010 we began training to lead Dances ourselves. We now lead several groups which meet in various locations around the Midlands (such as Derby, Leicester and Newcastle under Lyme), to share this wonderful way of connecting with others.

Here's a taster, on YouTube. This shows Neil Douglas-Klotz, one of the most well-known Dance leaders in the UK, leading a Dance based on the first line of the Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic (the video was filmed in the US, but Neil lives in Edinburgh).



Here’s another video (sorry about the poorer quality) showing Pir Shabda Khan (the Spiritual Director of the Sufi lineage which we follow), leading a dance called ‘Allah Hayy Hu’. This is one of the Dances which we sometimes lead – I love it, as it’s so energetic!



Find out more about the Dances here:

Dance Events with Janet and Chris
Dance Events with Wali and Ariënne van der Zwan (our dance mentors)
Dance Events around the UK