I’m Stephanie Grams, Mixed Media Artist and Sewing Artist (Sewpreneur) since 1982. Here’s a tad bit of information about me and why I’m moving from my 12+ years in marketing and publicity to this business model.
As a little girl …. (yep, I was little at one time) I used to hide in plain sight under my grandmother’s dining room table (a. k. a. sewing table) watching and listening to my mom and grandmother sew. I believe I finally was underfoot long enough that one day they decided to give me my own sewing basket … full of needles, thread, and remnants of fabric from their fashion creations. I learned how to hand sew at the age of 7 and have been studying the art ever since. (In case your wondering, that’s over 35 years years ago).
I’ve taught my four daughters to sew, however, only one learned the art of hand sewing, while the others have ventured into abstract painting, fiction writing, and musical instruments. All are creative and artistic.
I’ve had the honor and privilege to share the art of sewing in small batches with 4-H, Girlscouts, and Homeschoolers over the years. Many individuals have been along my side as I offer one-of-a-kind primitive Santa’s, dolls, pilgrims, and even honey bees! As well as through memorial gifts such as memory bears.
Death and Sewing
I look back over my life and see how instrumental sewing has been in the journey of healing and dealing with death. When I suffered a miscarriage in 1993, I took to hand embroidering as a means to deal with the internal sadness. Little did I know that this type of healing activity would come back into my life in a bigger way.
In 2001 I had the devastating heartbreak that no mother wants to experience, but many of us deal with, and that was the unexpected passing of my youngest daughter. Hannah was 14 months old when she passed away from cardiomyopathy and I haven’t stop sewing, in fact, I believe this is one of the driving forces that is pushed me into forming Sewing with STEAM, LLC.
There’s something healing that happens through the art form of sewing.