More than 1000 shotgun cartridges went into the creation of a Wanganui trio's entry into this year's Ag Art Wear wearable art awards at the annual Agricultural Fieldays.
The dress, called "Shotgun Wedding" was the concept of Wanganui couple Sharon and Rob Bryant and their neighbour Jenny Meade, of Jenny's Dressmaking, and was named runner-up in the Designer Traditional category.
Mrs Bryant estimated the dress took the three around 80 hours to make using items in accordance with competition rules that they use only agricultural products, by-products or materials found and/or used on the farm or from an animal or plant material.
They decided on an Edwardian-style dress, with a play on the tradition dictating marriage before children, and a celebration of clay-target shooting, in which Mr and Mrs Bryant are proficient. The dress was made primarily from recycled material, and in addition to the shotgun cartridges, included old fence posts to make the imitation clay targets, number 8 wire, an old boat float to make the bouquet base, the end of a silage cover for the underskirt and bodice and an old duck decoy for part of the headpiece.
It was entered into the "Designer Traditional" category, which had a premise based on an affirmative answer to the question, "If your Ag Art Wear design could be made with customary clothing materials, would you wear it?".
