Meet Trailblazer Laura Serota

Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Serota.

Laura, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve often said that I come by my craftiness honestly, that it is part of my DNA. Back in the late 60s, before I was even a thought, my parents owned a small store in downtown Denver called “The Village Smith.” My dad, a newly licensed lawyer, made musical instruments like dulcimers, guitars, and banjos, while my mom, a social worker, made quilts, baby bedding, and clothing. As they were starting out their married lives, they created this unique little shop.

Eventually, as my dad’s job as a public defender took up most of his time, and my mom became a stay-at-home mom to my two older sisters, the shop closed. But my parents never stopped creating. My mom continued to make quilts and clothes for my sisters, while my dad spent his free time making musical instruments, carving wooden figures and creating detailed and intricate train layouts.

In the very beginning of the 1980s, my parents migrated to the suburbs of Denver into a brand-new neighborhood in Centennial. My dad was entering a new career as a judge, and my mom was just about to have her third daughter (me!). Through all of the circumstances in life that make for a perfect opportunity, my mom and a friend she had met at a fabric shop decided to open their own fabric and quilt shop. With the help of a loan from friends, they opened the Great American Quilt Factory in southeast Denver in 1981. I was 9 months old and the shop quickly became my second home.

From that moment, the quilt shop was an integral part of my life. I was able to watch two women grow a small shop into an internationally known business. In the 30 years, they had their business, they created a pattern and book publishing company (using local Colorado printers was always important to them), their Possibilities publishing company allowed them to write over 100 book and pattern titles that were distributed worldwide. This allowed them to also travel the world teaching their techniques and crafts to thousands of aspiring quilters. Eventually, they also worked with fabric companies to design lines of fabrics, they created an award-winning children’s sewing series and employed over 30 women in their company’s retail and wholesale divisions.

Even as I grew up in the quilt store, my dreams of the future always pulled me toward medicine, technology or something in the field of science. While I learned all about quilting and sewing (and even carving and music from my dad), they were always more of a hobby and the quilt shop was a great summer job while I pursued a degree in biology from University of Colorado at Boulder.

When my aspirations of becoming a pharmacist after college didn’t go exactly as planned (does life ever?), I moved back to Centennial and started working full-time at the quilt shop. I was hired to work on the newly-created internet side of the business. (I giggle because that makes me feel OLD). I helped create a website for the shop and enabled the first online shopping while also moving over their inventory of 30,000 items to a computer POS system and training all of the employees how to use the system. During this time, I married my high-school sweetheart and we had our first son. I was fortunate enough to be able to bring my son to work when he was brand-new, sharing an office with my sister (the Director of Marketing and Human Resources), we both were able to raise our kids in this unique environment filled with kind, loving, ambitious and hard-working women.

In 2007, a friend of mine had mentioned a new website start-up called Etsy. Since sewing was still a hobby, but my son had enough bibs and burp cloths, I thought it might be a fun chance to sew up a few items, put them on Etsy and see what happened. I only made what I was already making in my free time, so once I picked a shop name (mamamade!), I posted a few burp cloths and bibs and shared around with my friends. Friends bought my items, and eventually, even strangers started making sales. It was a fun side-hobby.

With my second son due in 2008, I decided to start cloth diapering, which ultimately led to me making cloth diapers. Our desire to be eco-friendly and environmentally aware had increased as our family grew, and cloth diapers, cloth wipes, and reusable goods seemed to fit perfectly in our growing family.

In late 2008, my second son is credited with sparking inspiration. He LOVED to eat and I always had snacks on hand. Snacks in disposable plastic baggies that I hated throwing away, but didn’t have enough time to deal with washing, drying and reusing. In one of those cartoon-like, lightbulb moments, I decided that I could take the waterproof material I was using for cloth diapers and create my own reusable sandwich baggies to hold snacks. I whipped up some prototypes, decided on a final design and realized I had an amazing item on my hands. The sandwich bags were popular and one of my favorite items to make.

In 2009, while sitting at my desk at the quilt shop, dozens of emails started to pour in on my Blackberry. My sandwich bags were featured in Etsy’s weekly email and my shop sold out. Over 5000 sandwich bags later, they are still the best-selling item in my shop. With that fortunate opportunity, I started to spend less time at the quilt shop and more time working on my Etsy shop.

In 2010, my third son was born with major health issues, my husband had lost his job and life was at one of it’s most challenging points. I kept creating, sewing cloth diapers for sale, sewing sandwich bags, napkins, and even personalized clothes. My shop was not only a source of income but an absolute necessity for my sanity and well-being. Spending late nights in my studio after being a mom to three kids under 5 all day was my respite. I cherished the moments of silence while feeling valuable with my creativity.

My mom and her business partner decided to close their quilt shop in 2011, after 30 successful years. It was a bittersweet time, as my life was so fully intertwined in the everyday business, with the people and with the customers we had all grown to love over the decades. With the end of the quilt shop, I dedicated myself to being both a stay-at-home-mom and continuing to run my Etsy shop.

In 2013, as the trend of eco-friendly items continued to dominate my handmade inventory, I decided to add some reusable towels to my selection. I worked with a few items (always pulling from my cloth diaper making days), and had a good start to some small, thin towels that snapped together to be an easy replacement for paper towels. Upon returning from a vacation, I received fabric from a supplier, but it was the wrong fabric. The company told me to keep it and so I had a large amount of fabric I had to decide how to use.

In another cartoon-like lightbulb moment, I created the design for a reusable “paper” towel that used cotton fabric and terry cloth. Not only did I list my towels in my Etsy shop, but I also decided to share them on the brand-new and quickly growing platform of Pinterest. And almost like a repeat of the sandwich bags, the photo of the reusable towels started to get pinned and repinned. And almost in the blink of an eye, I had sold 300 sets of towels. We were still paying off medical bills from our son’s birth and hospital stay in 2010 and this explosion of sales set us on a path to eliminate debt and become financially secure.

Since the first Pinterest-related sales explosion, my shop became my full-time job. There were other fun high-points like being repinned by well-known bloggers, creating tools to decrease production time and involving my entire family in the towel-making process. The best part of it all is that I could always work my shop around my family. Over the years, not only have I been able to manage school pick-ups and after-school events, but when other opportunities are presented, I can take a step back from my shop, explore life, and return to making items that bring me joy to share with others.

As this current summer is winding down and I have been fortunate enough to be a nanny for my brand-new niece, I’m excited to return once again to the shop that has been a constant presence in my life for over 12 years.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I was lucky enough to learn from my mom’s business that it’s never a smooth road. But that’s okay. My mom’s favorite phrase was always, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” So when a challenge appeared, I broke it down into ways I could control it and how I could fix those issues, and let go of the things out of my control. Perhaps it was a mean customer who I chose to treat with kindness and grace as their day may have been going worse than mine. Slow sales meant a time to teach myself about marketing and use new platforms of social media to share my goods or learn how to take better product photos and write better descriptions of my items. When my family reminded me that too much time in my studio was taking away from their time, it was a good reminder of why I have kept the shop going for so long and that it was time to refocus toward them.

Another of my oft-used words of empowerment are that I’m sharing what I love with others and I need to remember to value myself. To not underprice my products to be competitive, but to price them at a point I need to stay in business and even to want to make the product. My quality is what speaks to my customers and they come back because I work hard at what I’m good at and let other handmade sellers create products that magnify their strengths.

I’ve always seen a challenge or obstacle as an opportunity to grow and learn. And while it’s rarely without tears, probably some not-so-great words and some backwards steps, persevering through the challenge is always the greatest reward.

Please tell us about mamamade – what should we know?
My parents often refer to themselves as “makers.” Which is a term I love because it also fits me so well. I’m a maker. While my primary shop focus is eco-friendly and reusable goods, I’ve also created a group for semi-custom clothing and sell crocheted and knitted goods when the inspiration strikes.

I’ve always been most proud of my reusable items, my sandwich bags, and un-paper towels. The comments from the friends and strangers who have used my goods for over a decade keep me going every day. I love being able to help others discover realistic and practical ways to make just a little bit of difference in their footprint on earth.

No matter what I’ve sold or created over the past 12 years, I have always held a huge pride in the quality of my items. While my own family lives with the prototypes and not-quite-right practice products, every item that goes out the door is made with care and attention to detail. I want my customers to be able to invest their hard-earned money into a product that really will last them for years.

Which women have inspired you in your life?
I wouldn’t be where I am today without my mom. She taught me about feminism, strength, character, and courage of conviction. She taught me to speak up and ask for help and to not be afraid to fail.

I’ve always admired the women in my life who held non-traditional roles – my flight instructors who taught me how to fly airplanes, my son’s endocrinologist who helped me to not be afraid of the life ahead, my sisters – one who taught me that all adventures are worth taking, and one who has taught me how to get up over and over again because the hard work does pay off.

Pricing:

• Reusable Sandwich Bags range from $9-$11
• Reusable Unpaper Napkins and Towels range from $6-$55

Contact Info:

• Website: http://mamamade.etsy.com
• Email: bymamamade@gmail.com
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/mamamadecolorado
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/mamamadecolorado

Image Credit:
Laura Serota – mamamade

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