ed & jake · glen ellyn, illinois
Our story.
A name, a friend’s wedding, and two people who like making things.
back to the studio
how it started
Flowers kept finding their way in.
Esotarium was a name before it was a business. Ed had spent years making art, objects and spaces, looking for a place where all of those interests could live together.
In 2024, Ed met Jake. Around the same time, Ed was getting ready to make the flowers for a close friend’s wedding. Jake saw something in it and encouraged him to keep going. That one wedding opened a door.
We started with a shared studio and plenty of ideas. It could have become a flower shop, a place for home goods, a furniture workshop, or somewhere to try things we hadn’t quite figured out yet. Flowers kept bringing it together.
Ed thought in pictures and atmosphere. Jake had been giving flowers to people he loved since he was a kid. Weddings and events gave those two instincts a place to meet. Local bridal boutiques, artists and other collaborators helped the studio grow.
Today, flowers still sit at the center of Esotarium, with fabric, handmade paper, signs, installations, workshops and objects around them. There’s room for more than one kind of making here.
creative direction
Ed Byla
Edvinas was born in Šiauliai, Lithuania, and grew up in the Chicago suburbs. His mother worked in beauty; his stepfather restored and rebuilt homes. Making things and working for yourself were part of everyday life.
A lifelong maker and a bit of a creative outsider, Ed has always used art to work through ideas and feelings. At Esotarium, he leads the flowers and creative direction, thinking about how a room will feel, what people will notice, and the small detail that makes something theirs.
fabrication & installation
Jacob Usry
Jake grew up giving flowers to his mother, grandmother, friends and family. Making something beautiful for someone else has always been part of how he shows up for people.
Before Esotarium, he spent nearly twenty years in his family’s paving company, founded by his grandfather in 1972. That background in building and figuring things out carries into the studio. Jake works with textiles, fabrication, installations and structures, helping the ideas become something you can stand in front of.
the name
Yes, we made it up.
An -arium is a place where things are gathered, like a herbarium. Our version brings together nature, art, memory, symbolism and the things we can’t quite put a name to.
That’s Esotarium. A place for the things we make, and the people we make them with.
something in mind?
Tell us about it.
We like working with people who want something personal and are up for making it together.