Ellie Hodesdon on East End Press: ‘The shop is a passion project for our team’
Ellie Hodesdon, founder of East End Press, chats to Rachel Morrell about her passion for all things paper and the joy of making creations that are treasured
Based in Glasgow, East End Press is a design studio created by Ellie Hodesdon specialising in high-quality, tactile decorations that are homemade in nature. ‘I’ve always been inspired by printmaking, folk art and handmade things. I think that all feeds into the style of the work,’ says Hodesdon. After graduating from Glasgow School Of Art, she spent some time abroad before returning to the UK and beginning to create at Glasgow Print Studio. ‘I realised all the products I was making that were by-products of the prints, like garlands and decorations, were more popular than the prints.’
Now made sustainably in Jaipur, there is a special quality to the production process that adds to the aesthetic. ‘The paper itself is entirely old, reused textile; there’s no single-use or first-use paper in anything and none of the packaging or the products are anything other than paper,’ she explains. ‘People love that the products are sustainably made, but also their tangibility. They have that printery, inky quality of being made by hand. You can literally feel and touch and smell the ink on them.’
With a vivid array of unique screen-printed flora and fauna lining the walls of her newly renovated shop, East End Press looks prettier than ever, giving Hodesdon a bright view of the future for both the brand and its products. ‘The shop is something that’s very much been a passion project for us as a team, somewhere people can come and see it all together. I hope when people put up their Christmas decorations and they have one or two ornaments from us, it becomes their favorite thing to get out of the loft every year. They become a sort of heirloom and that’s lovely to think about.’
East End Press, 427 Great Western Road, Glasgow.