Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ellie Thor. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Ellie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

There is a lot of pressure naming your business, you want a name that embodies your company, is memorable, and stands out against other companies.

For me personally I didn’t want to go with my real name, I wanted something that would show off both my personality and my art. Something I’d like to talk about, would start a conversation and that I’d love carrying on throughout my life.

Growing up my whole family loved creativity. While most of my family created physical art, my grandpa created stories. I have fond memories of mythical creatures that all had little jobs to help the world go around. By far my favorite creation was The Tooth Troll. The Tooth Troll (TTT for short) had a very close relationship with the tooth fairy and would work together to gather our lost teeth and give them to the needy animals in Yellowstone national park. He’d leave us notes about how we are doing and all the achievements I had made since the last tooth. He was my biggest fan, my source of inspiration, a huge motivator.

Now I create whimsical animal art burnt into wood and I think the tooth troll would be proud of what I’ve become, every animal I create lives in the TTT’s world, each one full of magic and life.

Moonlit Troll is a nod to my childhood, to my family, the way I was raised and the art I create. It’s a story I love to share, a piece of a mythical world I want to keep alive.
Moonlit Troll is me

Ellie , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve been drawing my entire life and am definitely someone who collects hobbies. Although I started wood burning in middle school I was always so captivated by color. When was younger mixed media art wasn’t what I was interested in, I thought that if it was a painting it had to be on paper or canvas, drawings belong on paper and wood burning could only be burnt and then possibly stained.

Now I know that rules were meant to be broken and creat bright vivid colorful pyrography for everyone to enjoy. I’m drawn to whimsical motifs, bright colors, cute bugs and playful animals. What started as mostly woodland creatures and zoomed in scenes that could have been taken from “a bugs life” has turned into the most adorable pet portraits where I get to channel the energy and personality of your best friends and burn them into wood forever.

I started mostly by posting my creations on Instagram. Back in 2020, Instagram was a beautiful place where creators could reach larger audiences and overtime I built up my little corner of the internet. As time has gone on I’ve found it to be a little more difficult connecting with new people through the algorithm game and have begun doing more in person markets. Being able to meet you guys and connect one on one has been so great but definitely came with its own set of challenges, like inventory. Over the last year I’ve been able to grow Moonlit Troll into being both an online shop and an in person shopping experience I’m proud to show off.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A massive lesson in life that I had to unlearn is that you do in fact need a break.

I don’t know about you but I am someone who ALWAYS has to keep busy. I cannot seem to sit and relax. For years I’ve been building my business as a side hustle along side of a full time 40hr+/week jobs. At one point I was working 3 jobs including Moonlit and quite literally did not have a single day off for over a year. I was overworked and exhausted.

Scheduling is super hard when you are creating a business and it’s extremely important to schedule time off to do human things like, laundry? Take a break, have atleast one day a week where you don’t even look at your business. Your mental and physical health will Thankyou for it

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

I’m the only employee of my business so I don’t have a payroll; however, I do provide a service to my customers and have thankfully only had one close call.

It was when I was working 3 jobs. I was working a minimum of 60 hours a week at the time and my custom order log was longer than it ever had been before. At the time my organization method was sticky notes and loose leaf computer paper, not the smartest I’ll admit. Somehow one of my orders either never got written down or never made it to the work wall and all of a sudden my customer- who had already paid in full- texted me wanting an update on her custom order. Instantly I knew I had dropped the ball, her order was DUE in less than a week and not only had I not started it, the original sketch was nowhere to be found.

When in this situation I instantly started getting overwhelmed, “what do I do? What do I say? Obviously I’m refunding her. She’s going to be LIVID” raced through my head. I chose to be honest with her, I told her that I had dropped the ball and forgot about her order entirely. I was honest about my organization and offered to refund her. Thankfully she wasn’t mad and was really appreciative of the instant apology and forthcoming with information. She chose to keep the order open and said that she’d be okay with waiting longer for her wood cookie.

By choosing to be honest and take accountability not only did I gain a customer who continues to trust me and my word, she was able to get her creation and i managed to finish it on time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://moonlittroll.company.site
• Instagram: Instagram.com/moonlittroll
• Other: TikTok @moonlittroll