A History of Ellen’s
Ellen’s Silkscreening is a medium sized apparel printing and embroidery company based in South Pasadena, California. We regularly handle printed and embroidered orders of between 24 and 5,000 units in-house on a 7-10 working day turnaround. Our knowledgeable sales team also sources out printed promotional product orders to a large network of vendors on a daily basis.
silkscreening, silk screen, screen printing, embroidery, embroider, applique, promotional products, drinkware, notebooks, flash drives, pens, pencils, banners, bottle openers, lanyards, balloons, keychain fobs, flash lights, sunglasses, T-Shirts, Sweatshirts, Polos, Knits, Layering, Fleece, Woven Shirts, Outerwear, Pants, Shorts, Infants and Toddlers, Headwear, Bags, Accesories,
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A History of Ellen’s

A very happy story

 

Ellen Saland came to Los Angeles from her native New York in 1960. She attended nursing school in Los Angeles in the early ‘60s and began her working career as a nurse. Not longer after, Ellen married and started a family.

 

Ellen quickly found that she loved running a business and that she was a natural salesperson.

 

In 1977, a divorced single mom of three daughters, Ellen took a screen printing class as part of a sign painting course at Pasadena City College. A year later she started Ellen’s Silkscreening out of her garage. Her goal was to have a career that would allow her to spend more time with her girls. Initially, Ellen did all the printing herself, with some assistance from a classmate at PCC, Pietro Palladini, and her daughters Raquel, Diana, and Angie. In the early days a big source of inspiration was her friend Mary Micucci, who was also starting her catering company Along Came Mary at that time.

Ellen quickly found that she loved running a business and that she was a natural salesperson. Her business grew steadily. Soon she was able to move the shop out of her garage to a building located at 816 Mound Avenue in South Pasadena (the back of the current shop).

 

A very important early customer for Ellen’s Silkscreening in the late 1970s was Robert Tanowitz of the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. As Robert moved up in his career at Rec and Parks, he frequently referred shirt orders to Ellen’s Silkscreening and eventually the Department became one of Ellen’s largest customers. Another important early customer was KRLA radio station, where Ellen met her future husband Joe Daigle. Eventually, Joe became Ellen’s business partner and he played a key role setting up the production systems at the shop that remain in place to this day.

 

She is also profoundly grateful for the incredible trust and loyalty of the many customers who have frequented the shop since 1978.

 

The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles led to a huge local surge in demand for printed apparel. That year, Ellen’s Silkscreening printed many apparel orders commemorating the Games and was transformed from being a small neighborhood shop to a medium sized shop pumping out many orders every day for customers across the city.

 

Over the years the shop has continued to grow and thrive, adding in-house embroidery services in the late 1990s and expanding into its current location at 1500 Mission Street in 2003.

 

Ellen attributes the success of her company to the hard work and dedication of her wonderful employees. She is also profoundly grateful for the incredible trust and loyalty of the many customers who have frequented the shop since 1978.