Rachel Elise Emerick is the owner of Elise Handmade, a small business offering bookish creations like clay earrings, clay bookmarks and painted books.
It all started her senior year in high school when she took a ceramics class and learned to work with clay. From there, she became inspired to create.
“Those were my favorite classes, and that’s what got me through high school,” Emerick said. “I served a mission, then I came home and I just didn’t know what to do. Then one day I was like, ‘I just want to create again’ because I love painting, just being creative. I saw someone making earrings out of clay, and I was like, ‘oh, I’ll take a look at it’ and just started playing with it.”
Emerick in her home office and creative space. Photo credit: Gabriela Fletcher
She began by making clay earrings, a trend that was taking TikTok by storm at the time. From there, she began to hone her talents and focused on a comprehensive theme for her business: all things book-ish.
Emerick expanded from book-themed clay earrings to flexible clay bookmarks and stickers, all inspired by her favorite series like “Harry Potter,” “Percy Jackson & the Olympians,” “Lord of the Rings” and more. Recently, she also started to make and sell sewn book covers to protect books from wear and tear as they are taken on the go.
Looking back, Emerick sees “Harry Potter” as being one of the most influential book series of her childhood. She reminisces on going to the movie premieres for the “Harry Potter” films in high school and even dressing up as Luna Lovegood for the final film premiere of the films.
Elise Handmade sewn book sleeves. Photo credit: Gabriela Fletcher
“I definitely (relate most to) Luna Lovegood, which is so funny because she’s just quirky and I love her,” Emerick said. “She’s so much fun and she’s herself, not gonna conform to anyone… she’s just happy with who she is.”
Emerick originally came to Rexburg when she started college at BYU-Idaho, but after some trial and error, she realized school wasn’t for her. She got a job working at Walmart in the meantime, which made her realize how much she loved being her own boss. This led her to create Elise Handmade and try her hand at running her own business rather than finishing her degree.
“School can be for some people, and they do really well with it…I think my brain just doesn’t commute well with the way that our school system is set up,” Emerick said. “I’m not making a ton of money, but I’m making enough to keep us afloat. It’s slowly growing, and it’s made me realize that I can do it, and I don’t need a degree to do it. I just need passion and determination… and sleep.”
After fine-tuning her business and improving her clay creations, Emerick expanded into painting covers of copies of the Book of Mormon, as well as learning a 17th-century art form called fore-edging.
Stack of books with painted edges done by Emerick. Photo credit: Gabriela Fletcher
Fore-edging is the practice of painting the exposed page edges of a closed book with water colors as decoration. The process involves pressing the book closed to keep the pages tight together and can be tedious as the artist has to reapply the water colors multiple times since the paper tends to soak up and diminish the colors.
Emerick first learned about fore-edge painting on TikTok from a UK-based artist named Maisie Matilda.
“She realized that fore-edge painting was on the endangered list of art forms,” Emerick said. “So she started just learning how to do it and it got (more popular). I kind of learned from her, and it’s just really cool.”
Fore-edged books are among the more expensive items offered by Elise Handmade due to the price of the books and the time it takes to complete the artwork. She is continually creating new products and designs for her shop, hoping to share her passion for books with others.
Emerick and her husband running the Elise Handmade booth at the Rexburg Farmers Market. Photo credit: Gabriela Fletcher
Because Elise Handmade is run from Emerick’s home, she frequently has a booth at the Rexburg Farmer’s Market to sell products and uses social media to share her creations. Like many things she has learned for her business, Emerick learned how to manage her social media accounts from creators on Instagram and TikTok.
“I want to grow online, and social media has been a difficult thing, but I have slowly been learning how to use it,” Emerick said. “I’m not only the creative behind the business, but I’m also the manager, I’m the content creator. But I’m excited. I hope that I can grow a following.”
She recently launched her new website where customers can purchase her creations online.
Painted Book of Mormon and art supplies. Photo credit: Gabriela Fletcher
Being a business owner means Emerick wears many hats and has to show up for herself, and her business, every day to see results and growth.
When she was in college, she could see her tendency to procrastinate as she turned in assignments late and struggled to maintain her grades. But since opening Elise Handmade, she has learned to manage her time and found the motivation and discipline needed to grow her business.
When she had just begun building Elise Handmade, Emerick noticed that when she tried to create products she thought other people would love, they didn’t sell as well.
Display of Emerick’s clay earrings offered at the Rexburg Farmers Market. Photo credit: Gabriela Fletcher
After much trial and error, she found that the items that sold best were the ones she put the most love into. For those with a similar struggle, she advises loving what you do and letting your effort and passion breed the results.
“Just do it,” Emerick said. “Finding what you want to do is so hard … I’m not perfect, but I love what I do now. Because of that, I feel like I’ve sold better. Learning what you want to do is a difficult thing, but start with what you love and work from there.”
More information can be found on the official Elise Handmade Instagram here and on the website here.
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