Think of a pond. Then think of ripples in that pond. Laura Kelly’s business spread like that.

[uam_ad id=”54865″]

“We’ve created a seven-figure business teaching kids knitting — kind of crazy,” said the 55-year-old founder of the Handwork Studio, based in Narberth.

Now in their 20s, Kelly’s children were just toddlers when they unwittingly helped inspire a needle-arts craft studio and camp program designed to give kids, primarily ages 5 to 15, a decidedly technology-free creative experience.

Back then, Kelly had a marketing job on Wall Street with a consulting firm that created back-office systems for banks and financial institutions. Daughter Devon was 1½ and son Ryan was 3 when Kelly was motivated to change things up in 1995.

“My nanny and my boss quit within four days of one another, and I took it as a sign,” she said. Besides, that six-year corporate job had “reaffirmed the fact that I’m really an entrepreneur at heart.”

With husband John a property director at Brandywine Realty Trust, Kelly opted to stay home with the kids. That quickly turned into a day-care gig for a neighbor’s daughter, and then into an after-school program for more than a half-dozen children of working parents.

“And then 9/11 happened, and I found myself obsessively watching TV and knew that I needed to be more engaged,” Kelly said. She opted for a job as an assistant in a real estate office.

While looking for a preschool for her children, she visited a program in a church basement where “the little ones were stitching woodland animals, and they were playing under hand-dyed silks, and they were grinding their millet for their muffins for their snack. And I said, ‘If my kids can’t be with me, this is love.’ And that really is at the heart of what the Handwork Studio is all about,” Kelly said.

To read the complete story click here.