Laura Yona has always known she was polycraftual. It started with early popsicle-stick napkin holders and orange-glazed clay ashtrays and has progressed to forays into sewing, knitting, quilting, fabric painting, weaving, polymer clay, beading, silver jewelry, assorted paper crafts...you get the idea. After spending decades trying to control her impulses, she has decided the better part of valor is to share the fruits of her labors instead. She has been self-publishing knitting patterns for several years, and received an Honorable Mention in the 2007 Purlescence Storytellers contest for her Puss' Magical Stockings story and pattern.

When it comes to the corporate world, Laura has followed a very non-traditional career path thus far. She joined the U.S. Air Force not long after graduating high school, and while serving her first term discovered some primitive 3-D rendering programs (Anybody else remember POVRay?). She fell in love with the idea of creating art on the computer, and when her tour was over, she enrolled in the Art Institute of Dallas' computer animation program. She quickly discovered that her talents would be better served in the Multimedia Design program, and graduated two years later with an AA. She subsequently launched her career in Web design, moving to the NYC area in 1999 and working for great companies like USA Network and Nerve.com, as well as her own private design company, cyberwhirled.com.

When the dot-com bubble burst she decided to pursue a “real” degree at Montclair State University, but instead of going for the more career-oriented business degree, she chose to cater to her love of learning and studied Classics, with a minor in archaeology. At the same time, she worked from 30 to 40 hours a week in a variety of jobs, most focused on marketing and customer service. She was also able to take advantage of Montclair State's Fiber Arts department (sadly, it's being phased out) and added weaving, spinning, and dyeing fabric to the knitting, sewing, and quilting she was already pursuing as hobbies.

As graduation approached, she began a serious job search with an eye toward working at an institute of higher learning – she felt that she had gotten so much from her college experience that she wanted to be a part of that for someone else – and on a whim applied to an online tutoring company. She was very excited about what they were doing and knew it was a company she could be proud of working for.

She spent the next nearly three years developing programs and initiatives designed to promote a new direct-to-consumer brand. These initiatives included newsletters, direct mail and email, tracking and analysis tools, an independent sales rep program, and more. She was responsible not only for creating and implementing many of these campaigns, but for tracking and analyzing the results and suggesting next steps based on those results. Because the company was a small start-up and her division was the new kid on the block, she built many of the necessary tools herself using Access and Excel.

Cutbacks at the end of 2008 resulted in her departure from Tutor.com, but she is taking the time to leverage much of what she learned into personal projects while she looks for the next “perfect” job. She is currently working on developing a database called Jot for writers to keep notes in, and is also pitching a book combining her love of knitting and her love of cooking. She has also launched an online craft design business at Etsy, where she sells earth and wallet friendly handmade miscellany, including handpainted organic tshirts, jewelry, original knitting patterns, and more.