"My sentimental item is this guitar, it’s kinda munted but it’s my favourite. Even though I’m not using it much at the moment, I know that it’s my most sentimental item because recently somebody wanted to buy it. I’m usually very overly generous and don’t necessarily hold onto things I’m not using, but I just couldn’t part with it! 

I think the reason it’s sentimental is because it’s an exact replica of my first guitar, that I never ended up buying when I was a teenager. I used to live in Mount Eden in Auckland. I think I was 15, and I was starting to become more independent. I was discovering this whole world of friends, bands, grunge, rock and roll and wandering around the city streets by myself. I was so into music, that whole time of life was really cool. 

There was this grungy little music store called Mr Bills. As a teenager I would stop in and look at everything. Then I saw this guitar, which looked pretty much exactly like this one. I thought: “It’s gonna be mine”. I remember my mum and I were going past the shop and I was like, “do you wanna come and see this guitar I’ve got on laybuy?” It was the one time she was invited into my world. I felt so independent when she didn’t offer to buy it for me. I put it on laybuy and chipped away at it. Then I ran up the phone bill too hard, I was calling America and talking to friends for hours. To teach me a lesson, my parents took anything I had that was worth something and sold it to pay the bill. I never finished paying for it and never got the guitar. 

Then somebody in Golden Bay sold this to me. It’s actually two guitars that they’ve pieced together, it’s an absolute piece of shit really, but it sounds incredible. It’s the most beautiful guitar to play and I just love it. It makes it even cooler that it’s not some fancy, expensive thing."

What does sentimentality mean to you?
"It’s never about the object itself. It’s a very special feeling, attached to memories that you hold dear and treasure. When it pertains to an object it’s something that grounds those precious memories into the physical plane, it holds them so you don’t lose them. Often very sentimental things evoke enough emotion to make you weep. It just leaks out. I’m so grateful to have had experiences that mean so much to me, that make me feel so strongly.” - Amy, Golden Bay, Tākaka (Interview: Chloe Mason) Find Amy: @twisted.stitches.nz/Waht Zine