Leeds-born Hannah Myerson tells us why she chose to combine classic Jewish humour with handcrafted cards for her new business venture, eyeroll.
Hannah Myerson is a Leeds-born artist who also works in the charity sector and has recently created her business, eyeroll., which sells ‘sincerely sassy cards’ that are perfect for any occasion. Designed and created by Hannah, each card is equipped with a pun and hand-finished with googly eyes to brighten your loved ones’ day and give a sprinkling of joy to their life events, however small or significant.
“I grew up in Leeds and I’m so proud to be from there, I think that’s where my sense of humour originally came from,” Hannah explains, speaking fondly of her childhood memories here. “The matriarch of our family in Leeds is my grandma Shirley who’s 97 now! She was always known in the community for telling dirty jokes; she’d go around the kiddush and shul every week with a new joke for everyone – which they loved – and seeing everyone’s reactions made it clear that it brought them joy.”
Hannah has been making cards for years and decided to turn it into a business after a happy accident: “I’ve always loved crafty things and I’m very sentimental, so creating cards is my favourite way to show people that I love that I’m thinking about them. Two of my friends got engaged last year and the design I thought of needed googly eyes, so I ordered some, and didn’t realise I’d accidentally ordered about 600; suddenly, I needed to find a use for hundreds of the things!”
“I’ve bought so many cards over the years for different occasions and they’re always very beautiful but, as a community, we’re so good at humour and I wasn’t seeing any of that on the cards I was buying. It was last November when I had a random burst of inspiration that I could create Jewish-related puns to represent our humour – it’s the good, clean fun that we want. I also think that googly eyes are universally fabulous; they just bring so much fun and life to everything they’re on!”
“There was something about the timing as well,” Hannah reflects on life within the community since October 7th. “We’ve gone through such a huge shift both internally and externally, it has left many with a real feeling of isolation and loneliness and a lot of people have chosen to turn inwards, regardless of how religious or connected they felt before. It was the perfect time to create eyeroll., so people are reminded that they’re part of something bigger. There’s also something lovely about seeing a joke and knowing the other 99% of the population won’t get it.”
“Personally, I was struggling to translate all my feelings into something positive, and this felt like a good way to bring that Jewish joy to life. It can feel heavy to be Jewish right now but we’re good at using humour after traumatic events; it may be a weird coping mechanism but it’s that warm fun that I wanted to remind people about.”
Currently there are 17 cards available at eyeroll. as part of three collections – the Kosher Edit, the Simchas Edit, and the Festive Edit – covering everything from a new baby to thanks, good luck, and Chanukah cards, and Hannah hopes that they’ll continue to span generations: “I have a card that’s a play on Jewish guilt, which is unsurprisingly a hit with older audiences. I also have another that has a Destiny’s Child reference that a younger demographic love. The cards aren’t exclusive to how religious or involved in a community you are, and they don’t have to be dependent on how much you know about Judaism – they’re just a nice way to bring us all together.”
Hannah’s cards are available to buy directly from her website or there are a handful of designs available to buy in-person at Headrow Gallery – with more hopefully being added soon!
