Introducing...Fast food fanatic and illustrator Lewis Wade Stringer

If you’re going to go and eat a burger, you may as well do it properly. There’s no point dodging your way around the calories and grease by making ludicrous demands like: “I’ll have the number three but without the bacon and mayonnaise please,” or the worst, “Can I get my burger without the bun?”

No, if you’re going to do it, do it well. Lewis Wade Stringer knows what I’m talking about, as it’s possible that no one has ever spent longer labouring over the perfect burger than him. In his magnificent portfolio of glistening hams, juicy steaks and pencil pineapples, Lewis also displays an enormous burger statue, the ingredients of which are as follows:

Eight heat sensitive silicone rubber moulded burger patties
Heat gun treated acrylic cheese slices
Silicone rubber marbled lettuce
Laser-cut acrylic tomato slices
Laser-cut ply wood pickles
Hand sanded poplar wood bun with four layers of gloss varnish
Laser-cut veneer sesame seeds

Read more about Lewis’ work in this little interview we did with him below.

Where do you work?

I’ve just finishing studying Illustration at Camberwell where I lived in the 3D workshop and sculpture studio. Now they have been taken away from me, I have a huge desk back at home where I work. Not having a work bench and lots of tools at hand anymore makes it hard to get motivated so I think I’m going to try and bribe my mum into letting me make a workshop in the garden shed.

How does your working day start?

Now that I’ve moved back home it’s usually hearing my little sister playing then I finally surface and switch on the television. Having daytime television back again I know is going to ruin my life. It was a good thing we didn’t have it during uni or no work would have got done. I always write myself a big “TO DO LIST” that slowly gets crossed off and the aim of the day is to do at least one thing on it.

How do you work and how has that changed?

It usually takes me a while to get around to start working. I’ve found that if I don’t like a project/brief/idea it takes me even longer to turn it into something that will interest me. I’ve changed in how I initially approach the beginning of my work now. If I have an itching idea I will do it and if it doesn’t work then I know to move onto the next.

I used to get stuck with something that wasn’t working but was afraid to stop working because I may have delved too deep and if I were to start afresh then all of what I had done was a waste. I think it takes a lot of balls to realise when something isn’t working and just move onto the next idea. I guess what I have taken from my three years of study is that although I would move on to a new idea, all of the prior work is research and development.

Where would we find you when you’re not at work?

Selling shoes currently but I am looking to make a change. It’s pretty “sole” destroying.

Would you intern for yourself?

Yes I think I would. I’ve spoken to a few people about interning and I’ve done some myself and have a grasp of how I would like to be treated and what jobs I would like to do. I think I would tell people from the outset what it is that would be required, what they would gain from the experience and that they would be coming to my mum’s house to work from my bedroom and the garden shed.