Special feature of the Waikato Times 13 August 2011
Waikato's finalists in the 2011 Brancott Estate World of
Wearable Art. Aimie Cronin talks to the hopefuls about the
blood, sweat, tears and hundreds of hours that went into making
their masterpieces.
Frances McInnes pictured
with her entry from last year (2010)
... Interview extract about Frances McInnes' entry
titled "Self Analysis Version 2.0"
Competition director Heather
Palmer says about Frances McInnes' "Self Analysis Version 2.0" "A
bit of fun about accepting our bodies as they are. I'm sure
the audience will enjoy the humour in this garment."
When Frances McInnes polled 12,500 mums on Facebook to get inspiration for her WOW piece,
she asked them which part of their body they liked the least.
The answer was a split down the middle: tummies and
bums.
So she got to work on the piece she describes as "quite a bold
statement" and earned herself a place in the finals of the Open
Section. Her message, she says, is loud and clear: every
woman is perfect the way she is.
The 32 year-old owns and operates Breastmates, a website offering
products and support for motherhood. Her Facebook
page is filled with mums who talk about everything from breast
pads to body image, and then some.
"The women liked the thread because they felt they weren't the
only ones with flabby tummies and wobbly bums. They didn't
know what I was asking them for," she laughs, but she wanted to tie
the costume she made to a message for her Facebook community.
McInnes was a finalist in
the Bizarre Bra section at WOW last year with her piece titled maMADONNA Nursing Bra that was
made from baby formula scoops.
A trained engineer, she says she never got a chance to express
her creativity until her adult years. "I was a geek and they
put me into maths and physics and chemistry lines at school.... I
always wanted to do art, but it wasn't encouraged."
So she potted away at home making paintings for her children's
rooms and mosaics for friends. A friend of hers headed along
to a previous WOW show a few years ago, and came back urging
McInnes to have a crack at making something. After making the
finals in last year's section, she made something bigger and better
this year and now she's hooked. She says it's her way of
relaxing after a busy day working on her website and being mum to
her two boys, Angus 6, and Lochie 3.
This year's entry took "about 300 or so hours of work" - every
evening for about four months. By the end she admits to being
"a bit sick of it", but she's already thinking about next year's
entry. Look out Facebook Mums.
WOW Runs in Wellington from August 25 to September 10 with the
award winners announced on August 26.
UPDATE: You can now see images of our 2011 design here
