A custom Mahjong gift for her mother became the starting point for Margaret Ellen Maturin’s Marelle: A Mahjong Collection. A July 30, 2026, University of Mississippi profile follows the mechanical engineering graduate as she develops an Ole Miss-themed set.

Maturin used the university’s Center for Manufacturing Excellence to test materials and production methods. The project moved from attempts to make tiles herself to applying her own designs in the United States to sourced blank tiles.

The university article announced August online sales and an August 20 launch event at Oxford Floral. Those dates describe the plans reported in July; this account does not establish that the later event took place.