Following a two-decade career at the Smithsonian Institution, a Fairlington artist has opened a new boutique with handmade stationery in Long Branch Creek.
Theresa Esterlund celebrated the grand opening of her new shop, Open to Being, last weekend at 2424 26th Road S. The shop carries cards, prints and notebooks featuring her original artwork, many printed on-site using an antique letterpress.
“We believe in [the] power of art and words to bring people closer together,” Esterlund said in a press release. “A heartfelt message touches the soul. A handcrafted greeting card is a gift of art. Our studio and shop are here to nurture these exchanges.”
A highlight of the boutique is the 115-year-old press that Esterlund that uses to print designs individually, by hand.
Colorful prints offer abstract designs and inspirational mantras, while minimalist greeting cards share “happy birthday” and “congratulations” messages on cotton card stock.
“All of my greeting cards and all of my prints — they’re not digital prints,” Esterlund told ARLnow. “They’re one-off prints or edition prints that I do letterpress.”
The boutique also carries collages and products from local businesses, like Northern Virginia-based tea company Rough Seas Productions.
Despite her passion for artwork, Esterlund told ARLnow she never imagined she would open a boutique.
The idea came to her in 2020, during lockdown and after being laid off from a 25-year career where she led education programs at the National Museum of Asian Art, the Textile Museum and others.
“The idea for this business was born out of that year, of all kinds of things happening in my personal and professional life, and me really examining what really mattered to me,” she said. “What did I want to do in the world, and what could I do next?”
Esterlund began taking online art classes during that time. When she eventually discovered the letterpress, she said she immediately knew what direction she wanted to take next.
“What I wanted to do was to produce something beautiful, that could have the right words to connect people,” Esterlund said.
She started a three-year letterpress work exchange program in 2022 at the Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center, where she familiarized herself with the medium through experimentation and practice.
She found a letterpress seller by word-of-mouth in the months leading up to her shop’s opening, buying the vintage machine in January. The seller, a woman from Potomac, Md., kept the machine long after her husband passed away, about 10 years ago.
“My partner and I got to know her and know the craft, and got to hear some stories about her husband,” she said. “It was just really nice connection for me and something that really matters to me.”
Open to Being is Esterlund’s first brick-and-mortar location, although she has sold her work independently at D.C.-area markets over the past year and a half.
Aside from retail, Esterlund will offer group classes and events at the shop, with topics like journaling, postcard writing and hand-bound notebook making. She also intends to offer private letterpress instruction.
Esterlund hopes these activities encourage customers to relax, reflect and connect with others — something referenced in the new boutique’s name.
“It’s important for me to be open to whatever the universe offers, whatever life offers,” she said. “It’s important that it’s a little abstract, maybe it is a little open to interpretation. To me, that’s art as well.”
