It’s all run by me, Jennifer Vencill. Consider me your friend who’s just a little obsessed with pretty paper.

Things you might want to know about me.

I’m a homebody, lover of tiki cocktails, picnics, dogs and classic cars. I live in a little 1940s cottage on the edges of New Orleans, which may just be the prettiest city in all the world. I don’t think that I’ll ever get tired of live oak trees and crooked cast iron fences.

If you hand me a piece of fine paper, odds are I can tell you the name of it and the mill where it was made: it’s my one Sherlock Holmes trait!

I have sections of the Pantone book memorized and can usually tell what color range the number happens to be. I might even have a pretty good idea of the formula for making that particular color.

You see, I’ve been doing this whole design, illustration and letterpress thing for a long time now: going on two decades! For all that time, since college, really, I’ve been a professional illustrator and printer, with clients including a zillion happy brides, a handful of celebrities, and a smattering of debutantes.

Eglantine Rose is my chance to try something old, but new, and launch my own brand. Hang up my little shingle. So while Eglantine Rose is a new endeavor, you get all the benefit of years of experience. I’m so happy you’re here!

Letterpress is a centuries old technique of pressing words into paper. Remember when you learned about the Gutenburg bible in school? Same thing. Nowadays, I use photopolymer plates rather than individual lead letters – the plates leave more scope for the imagination in what I can create – and my presses are from the 1890s rather than the 1450s, Otherwise, the process is relatively unchanged. Why? There’s just something so tactile, lovely, and handmade about letterpress printing. It leaves a real sense of ink pressed into paper, and lends itself to important occasions in life.