June 24, 2013
Marg Enkelmann, from Silverleaf, has been taking recycling to an extreme … turning tractor tyre inner tubes, fertilizer bags and bit’n’pieces from the farm shed into fashion.
Her creations have featured at Queensland Rural, Regional and Remote Women’s Network (QRRRRWN) events – and more recently, at flood recovery events in the South Burnett – but last month she took them to an interstate audience.
She was invited to bring a wardrobe of her creations to the Cotton Fibre Expo held in Narrabri on May 11.
Marg and her husband Peter along with Melody and Graham Black, from Kingaroy, and a friend, Dale, loaded up the car and headed south.
On stage Marg, Melody, Dale and local models paraded the latest in cotton seed bags, chemical drums and cotton picker spindles to an appreciative audience who earlier in the day had enjoyed a more “traditional” fashion parade.
Marg told southburnett.com.au she had been creating “farm wearable art” since 2005.
“My friends have been so wonderful and supportive,” she said.
“Everything comes from rubbish and recyclable things from a farm . . . the gloves, jewellery, stoles, dresses, hats, and now and again, wigs.
“The motto is to ‘reuse, recycle and reduce’.
“The QRRRWN have a competition each year (when the conference is on), and I have always entered. I haven’t always won, of course, but I love it.
“Farming life can get rather serious, but with farm wearable art, it doesn’t care about size, colour or age. All it cares about is giving you fun and laughter.
“You are allowed to use paint, glitter, sequins, as well as glue, staples and velcro on your fantastic fashion. Some of it is rather crazy, but great for one’s imagination.”
Her dressmaking tools include a welding torch, pliers and a hot iron. And nothing discarded on the family’s farm is safe from being turned into a fashion piece.
PS. Marg’s creation’s are not just for the catwalk. When pop icon Lady Gaga toured Australia earlier this year, Marg’s daughter Kylie shouted her a ticket, but only on condition that they wear her tractor tyre tube outfits. They did, had lots of fun … and fitted in quite nicely!
(Photos: Enkelmann family)
- Some more photos from the ABC website
