How it started…

If you didn’t know, Elsie & Ron is named after both my late great-aunt, Elsie and my grandad, Ron.

I’m very sentimental (sometimes to a fault!) and so when I started building my business, I knew I wanted to name it after two people that helped shape me and my imagination (a little more about that here).

I graduated in 2017 with a degree in Textiles in Practice, and shortly afterwards I knew that a job in the textile industry wasn’t the direction I wanted to go in. I’d been selling greeting cards under my own name to friends and family for years and wanted to explore that more. I was lucky enough to get a spot in a shared studio for a year where I illustrated cards, prints, private commissions, selling at markets and in local shops. Eventually, I decided that I wanted to build a brand separate from myself and my own name, something with a story. And so, at a market in 2018 when I was daydreaming about owning my own shop, I scribbled their names down on a paper bag and tucked it away in my notebook.

the paper bag - I found it again when sorting my studio! I always knew it was worth keeping

Those scribbles danced in my mind for the next 5 years, and in 2023 I finally signed up to a website and started designing.

I launched with four Christmas cards inspired by 1950s imagery and motifs, and Elsie & Ron proudly (and finally!) displayed on the back.