In late 2014 Liz and I started Carter + Rose out of our love of creativity and desire to be fully immersed in a creative community. In Liz, I found someone who was equally drawn to making, producing and learning. We started C+R from the ground up, we were scrappy and we had fun.
After a year, Liz needed to move on, and I took over the businesses. Taking over Carter + Rose was overwhelming and hard, but it also opened up endless opportunity. I continued to make wall planters, travel to trade shows, and grow our wholesale and online presence. I also experimented with ideas, played with clay, and developed more products! Our storefront blossomed into itself, and our classes grew in popularity.
At the same time, Liz was growing Unwilted, designing paper flowers and training artists to help make her inventory. We were living parallel creative lives, raising kids, eating snacks on the floor, and powering through small business life.
I decided to visit Liz last month to really see what she was up to. I was met by room fulls of gorgeous paper blooms, delicate petals, and mazes of boxes. Pink, red, cream, yellow, perfect paper leaves. Everywhere I looked, it was like spring had erupted inside a warehouse office space.
And I was so inspired. Not just by the beauty and perfection of Liz’s paper flowers, but also by the business she had built. I could see me in her. In some ways being in her space made me understand myself and Carter + Rose better. I understood the full breath of her accomplishment, and mine too. It also became clear to us that there was an obvious collaboration right in front of our eyes. And the
collaboration could be gorgeous.
We hope you love it as much as we do.
xo Anna
