Hello, my name is Laura

Hello! My name is Laura. First things first.

I think the day I decided to start this project… was just an ordinary day. It wasn’t one of those days that look promising, when you know from the morning that it’s going to be a great day, that you’re going to have brilliant ideas, or that you feel full of energy. No. It was, in fact, a rather plain day.

During one of my coffee-and-sunset afternoons, I sat in a chair in my garden to watch the sun. I had just got home from work, taken off my shoes, unbuttoned the top button of my trousers, and made myself a warm coffee.

These kinds of moments are what I call time spent with myself. For ten minutes, I relax my mind, switch off from everything, watch the sunset, and find peace. Well, in reality I don’t switch off from everything… but I connect with just one thing: the present moment. Me, my breathing, the sun, the colours painted by the sunset (oranges, blues, browns, blacks…), the tranquillity, the sound of the birds… I feel the warmth of the coffee on my fingertips, or the breeze on my skin, or the smell of firewood lingering in the air… I discovered one day, by the way, how closely these kinds of moments are connected to mindfulness (which I recommend).

Anyway, it was during one of those moments that the idea came to me, along the lines of: Eureka! I would be passionate about this project…

But… who am I? Let’s go back a few years. I was born in November in the late ’80s. Well, let’s go back a little less… When I was little, I spent a lot of time with my grandmother. I was a very restless child, full of curiosity, and I watched my grandmother sew. She sewed by hand and with a machine, but what really caught my attention was that she created things with her hands from loose, seemingly unrelated pieces. My grandmother taught me to sew. But it would be many years later that I discovered crochet.

To give a quick overview of my teenage years and my twenties, I spent many years focused on building and developing my professional career—on “making a future for myself”. I started working at 16, while continuing to study… and study… and study… until I completed my third degree and a master’s degree. By that point, I had changed jobs several times, and the type of work had changed too, as I specialised in positions related to my studies. I worked for small companies that I remember very fondly and where I gained wonderful experience, until I ended up at a large international company.

Throughout all those years, I went through very different stages, but there was always one common factor: my interest in art. Depending on the period, I’ve had more or less free time to devote to my hobbies, but from childhood to the present day, I’ve always dabbled in the arts… I embarked on adventures in the world of music, the world of literature, the world of photography… And, of course, the world of crochet.

It was about five years ago that I made my first project. It was a disaster! But I remember perfectly the feeling of wonder and excitement when I looked at my first creation. That day, a seed was planted. It germinated, and since then it has never stopped growing. Crochet awakened an unstoppable passion and interest in me, which today has blossomed into this project, Idealium.

My grandmother is no longer here to see it, but I imagine the smile she would have had if I had shown her this whole venture I’ve built with so much excitement, ideas, and projects, inspired by what she taught me through sewing.

Idealium was not created solely as an online shop. I want to share ideas, projects, inspiration, questions, and concerns with you… To try to tell you the things I needed someone to tell me when I was learning, make your projects easier, and offer you the support and advice you need to finish your projects delighted with the result.

From the beginning, I wanted to create a shop that offered something more, that added value. This value lies mainly in supporting and accompanying you through your project, offering the advice that comes in handy when you’re trying to follow a pattern, anticipating the questions we all ask ourselves when a project doesn’t turn out like the one in the photo, and offering a kit so that one purchase includes everything you need to complete the project…

And so I kept adding ideas until Idealium was fully structured in my mind. Today, we’re opening its doors with great excitement.

And the first thing I wanted to tell you is… Hello, my name is Laura :)