About page

My name is Shelly Callahan and I am the inventor, creator and maker of the Shade-A-Rella, the decorative shade cloth holder for your delicate plants.  I came up with this idea several years ago to protect an ornamental Japanese maple tree I wanted in my very sunny front yard.  The tree really needed to be partially shaded but I didn't want to move it to my back yard just so it could be in the shade.  I wanted it to be a center piece in my front planter.  I knew about shade cloth but there was no nice way to put it in my front yard.  I owned and operated a Waterjet cutting and laser engraving shop at the time and did a lot of metal cutting.  I knew I could come up with a beautiful yet functional way to hold shade cloth that looked like it belonged in my garden. The idea of a large flower protecting my small plant appealed to me so the first Daisy shaped shade cloth holder was created.  And it is still over that little tree keeping it alive 11 years later!

      I knew a lot of people probably had the same type of issue so I decided to apply for the patent for Shade-A-Rella.  My background is in scenic and lighting design for theater plus manufacturing so a perfect background to create a product!  I briefly lived in NYC pursuing lighting design for theater but realized that was not where I wanted to be.  So I moved myself and my laser back so SoCal, got a little shop space in Huntington Beach and I am currently assembling these myself and I even weld the ground receivers!  I am pretty handy.  I want to create holiday designs and insert LED lights on them eventually.  I hope to find a manufacturer so I can concentrate on new designs and materials so you can have the perfect Shade-A-Rella for your yard. So if you have a plant that needs a little extra shade, don't move the plant!  Bring the shade to your plants with Shade-A-Rella!