To Paraphrase …

• To start, please tell us a bit about yourself.  What’s your story?

My name is Stephanie Hamer, i’m 19 and i’m from Manchester. I’ve just finished my art foundation year and i’m going on to do Product Design at Sheffield Hallam University in September. I enjoy bargains, dressing up, cold & sunny days, Philadelphia, ebay, fun, motivation, tetris, memories, cereal, nights out, cups of tea, long baths and parcels in the post.

• How long have you been creating?

I’ve been making and selling necklaces online for about a year and a half now. I started out selling on myspace, but now i mostly sell from my shop, and ebay.

• What inspires you?

The whole thing started out when i found some old fimo in a cupboard and made myself a big pink letter ‘S’ that i hung from a necklace. I then discovered shrinkie dinks and just kept experimenting. A lot of the items i make came about just because i wanted the necklace myself.

• Please describe your creative process (the how, the when, materials, etc.).

I use shrinkie dink shrinking plastic, which is a sheet of thin plastic which is cut to the shape you want (i make my templates on the computer and then print them out), the plastic is then heated in the oven until it shrinks and thickens.

• What’s your biggest artistic disaster to date?  How did it help you progress?

I don’t know if i’ve had any disasters as such. When i first started out it took a lot of trial and error, my work is defiantly more accurate and professional now than when i first started, but only through a lot of practise, and changing the way i do things, such as using a craft knife instead of scizzors.

• What’s your favourite piece that you’ve done?

My name necklaces are the most popular. They are also the most interesting for me to make as they are all different. I quite enjoy it when people email me asking if i can do specific things. “Variety is the spice of life” i always say.

• What’s coming up for you; any big plans artistically?

I plan to continue what i’m doing to fund myself through the summer, maybe introducing new designs as and when i create them. At the end of September i will be living in student accommodation so i’m not sure if i will continue after that…

• Recommend 3-5 artists the rest of the world should know about.

In no particular order, and for no particular reason; Merry Kawamura Ganjavian (http://www.merrykawamuraganjavian.com), Krisatomic (http://www.krisatomic.com), Peter Callesen (http://www.petercallesen.com/), Michael Hughes (http://www.flickr.com/photos/michael_hughes/sets/346406/)

• Where can people find your work?

http://sundaygirl.bigcartel.com

Thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview!

Well, that was the first installment of “… And I Dig It!”  It came together a lot faster than I thought it would.  Please visit Stephanie’s site and check out her work!  That’s what this feature is all about – getting people interested in art forms connected with people working and creating with art forms!