We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Laura Herrmann a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Laura, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I’ve always been interested in making things: from those little bracelet kits that you get on Christmas from your aunts, to the quilting my grandmother did and the embroidery that my mother does. I learned to sew clothes with my grandma and mom when I was quite young, and then to cross-stitch, knit, spin, weave, tat and make needle lace. Every new facet of the craft is a natural extension of that desire to see whether “I can do that, too”. Sometimes it works out well and sometimes not, but I always learn something along the way.

I started to explore making purses and handbags more recently. A friend of mine came out as transgender, and I wanted to make her something awesome and gender-affirming, like a purse! At the time I had no idea that people actually designed patterns for purses, so I more or less made it up on my own. That led me into a community of sewists who specialize in purses, backpacks, wallets and other more structured items and there’s always something new being developed. Each new technique and new print of fabric keeps me excited!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hi! I’m Laura, and I’m a 30-something engineer with an amazing husband, a 9 year old son and two ridiculous housecats. I’m also the seamstress behind Cybermenology Handmade: a geek-focused brand centering around handmade purses, backpacks and wallets. What I do is not as simple as re-covering mass-produced purses: On the contrary, I sew all of my products myself from the raw fabric on up, using a range of specialized materials and at times an industrial sewing machine.

I love making a connection with my customers through our shared fandoms. It’s such fun when someone finds a way to show off their passion with a customized item that they can be proud off! Because of this, custom orders are a key part of my business. We’ll take the time to design together exactly the purse or backpack that will really make their heart sing. I can also print my own fabric, dialing the level of customization up to 11!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think the thing to keep in mind is that learning is so important throughout our entire lives. It’s easy to learn things when we’re young – something new is happening to us all the time, that our brains are like little sponges. But as we grow older we stick to the things we’re comfortable with, the things we’re good at. It’s like we fall out of the habit of learning. I think it’s critically important to keep learning new things and to be comfortable with “being new” at things: being bad at them, even! I love taking classes, and several places in St Louis are great at offering small classes in what seem to be really random but fun things – Perennial comes to mind first and I recommend them highly.

Learning new things keeps your brain healthy, and who knows when the next new thing you try may be something that you really love!

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

The best thing society can do to honor its creatives is to support us – financially if possible, but just by loving and sharing the artists whose work you love! A share on social media or a text to your friends can make all the difference, and it’s amazing to know that we’re resonating with you.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cybermenology.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/cybermenology
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/cybermenology

Image Credits
Kelly Cook Photography