01
Drawn with meaning
Every design begins with a reason, a story, and a meaning — not a trend. Each collection is rooted in a specific place, designed to be understood by specific people, not by all.
The Story
A table worth
sitting around.
Marelle began the way most good things in the South do — at a table, with family, over a game that was never just a game.
01
Where it began
The place that named me
I grew up in Lafayette, Louisiana, in a family whose oldest members spoke Cajun French around me before I could name what it was. I learned early that a good kitchen is the loudest room in the house, that a table isn't finished until someone's telling a story across it, and that there's a specific kind of love in something made by hand for somebody you love.
Marelle was chosen because it coalesces the namesake that was already gifted to me, Margaret and Ellen - my first and middle names. It purposefully has a soft French sound, a choice I made to honor my Cajun-French heritage and the corner of Louisiana I come from. And, as it turns out, marelle is a real French word - meaning hopscotch, another game!
French · feminine noun
marelle
/ ma·rɛl /
hopscotch — a game you play by moving forward, one square at a time, until you reach the end. Which, I realize now, is what I was doing all along.
02
Two Halves, One Table
The door I walked through
I always knew I wanted the engineering degree. Completely. What I could not picture was a typical engineering life. I loved the math, the machinery, the problem solving — but I also loved designing, imagining, sketching, and allowing my creative side to run free. For a long time, I could not figure out where those two parts of me were supposed to meet.
then i found the cme ...
The Center for Manufacturing Excellence at Ole Miss gave me a real shop floor, real machines, and an education that treated creativity, innovation, and making things with your hands as serious engineering work. It was the first place I'd been that didn't ask me to pick a side. Without the CME, none of this would exist.
“I did not leave engineering for design. I found a way to make them sit at the same table.”
03
Before it was a business
One gift, many drafts, made for my mother
I started by making heartfelt, thoughtful gifts to give to the people I loved in that very space that finally allowed me to use both sides of myself. Every year, I got a little braver and the gifts got a little better. Somewhere in there, my mom picked up mahjong. Over time, I saw the joy it brought her and how much it grew to mean to her. That’s when I decided that a custom set of tiles would be the next project I would tackle - the most special gift I would make for her yet.
I started with wood. Hand cutting the tiles one by one, routing every single edge, and trying to sand each face flush. It was warm and honest … and nearly impossible to replicate at such a small scale. So I moved to epoxy resin. Poured my own layers, printed my own molds, and spent way too much on materials before I finally called it.
It wasn’t working and the engineering brain in me knew the answer wasn’t forcing the wrong process until it behaved. The answer was finding a way to design a better one.
“It began as a gift, but at some point in the middle, it developed into much more. I just hadn't caught up to it yet.”
the chickens!
04
What I Will Not Skip
The standard
When I rebuilt the process, I kept all the parts that mattered most - the meaning, the storytelling, and the quality remaining in my hands. I leaned on my knowledge and love of machinery, and brought part of the production back to the US. The final design application portion of the manufacturing process remains in house - with me and my own machinery.
Because of this, every Marelle set passes directly through my hands before it reaches yours. Not because handmade sounds romantic. Because I know what I am looking for. The vibrant layered composition. The way the edges round ever so slightly. The way the designs tell a story through extreme detail and realism. The way the artwork sits elevated and how it feels when you run your thumb across the surface. That very unique tactile experience that keeps you coming back for more.
02
Finished under my eye
The design step happens in house - the final portion of the manufacturing process is done by me with my own machinery, Partially produced in the US, fully under my standard.
03
Packed from my table to yours
Checked tile by tile, by me, for you. Nothing leaves because it is good enough. It leaves when I am proud to send it. With the same care as a gift I would wrap for my mom.
made special for all,
“More women at the table. That was part of the design.”
