Behind the scenes with #granafriend, Ellen
This is Ellen.
We’ve been friends since 2013, just before Grana began. In fact, she still remembers our first silk product and its exact production date. Who knew?
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"Grana really is a special one for me. Like a child, I watched her grow up."
Ellen has lived in the Eastern China city Huzhou for 19 years since she began university and where she’s met her now-husband. Almost as soon as she graduated, she landed herself a job in the textiles industry at our key silk supplier, Huzhou WB Factory. It’s been 15 years and counting in the lakeside town of two million.
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In Huzhou, China, a 2,300 year old city known as The City of Silk and as a land of rice and fish.
A big perk to this particular factory is that it’s known for hiring locally, and Ellen is a great example. Born in Wuyi, a small city of Zhejiang province which is known for its hot springs, she’s a mere two hours away from the textile city of Huzhou.
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The Eastern Rhine River runs through Huzhou making it the perfect city for a postcard.
You can bet she knows this textile-famous city like the back of her hand. “I know every street of this city. [All the] rivers, bridges, old buildings, delicious Huzhou foods such as zhongsi (粽子)” she prides. But when she’s off duty, you expect to find Ellen tending to garden.
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