David Walker, Alaska, USA
World of WearableArt™ 2009; Avant Garde Section; 1st Supreme Award 1st AvantGarde

The Lady of the Wood travelled from Alaska, USA to take out the World of WearableArt™ Supreme Award in 2009. Her creator, David Walker, who describes himself as "some regular ol' carpenter guy" was the first international entrant to win the award in the show's 21-year history.

David, a resident of Juneau and a carpenter by trade, didn't ever imagine his carpentry skills would help him win an international competition. "I've always considered myself a craftsman, not necessarily an artist." In 2000, when the Juneau annual Wearable Art Extravaganza was established, David went along to see his sister-in-law's entry. As he watched the show, he decided it looked a lot of fun and began thinking about how he might use his carpentry skills to create wearable art.

He entered the next year and has done so every year since. In 2006, David entered WOW for the first time and in 2007 he won the Avant Garde section with Prehistoric Princess. This was a wooden dress made of cheery wood veneer, with cedar shims, felt lining, a stegosaurus-type tail and with wooden spikes coming off the model's shoulders and wrists. David followed this with a wooden 'bizarre bra' in 2008.

That same year, he had already started working on Lady of the Wood while also working full time as a carpenter at the University of Alaska Southeast, where he was remodelling student apartments. David uses his garage as a workshop "and usually what I end up doing is clearing a space big enough to set up my adjustable mannequin and start stacking things on anything and everything I can make a flat surface on."

His goal was reproduce an 18th century ball gown in wood. The concept first arose as he considered a pile of veneer planks he had been given, and how he might use them. The first "draft" of the ball gown was made using this material, and inspired him to create a gown as close as possible to a real 1700s-style dress, using wood as the only material.

David decided to use all American woods – mahogany, lacewood, maple and cedar – which he shaped with scissors and knives. He modified a pattern of an 18th century ball gown to make the bodice out of lacewood. The sleeves were made from mahogany, steamed and bent into shape, and finished with cuffs made of lacewood. The skirt pannier was constructed out of two cedar hoops which supported a mahogany belt. The belt was covered in 52 stripped mahogany and maple veneer strips which were finished with a poly/oil mix to make them shine.

A lot of space was needed when working with the sheets of wood veneer so David would lay his patterns out, cut and refine each piece on the kitchen table then move it out to the garage to put on the mannequin. "Luckily, I have a pretty understanding family!" The costume, which took two years to complete, was finished off with a wig made from the wood shavings.

Lady of the Wood won the wearable art show in Juneau, before moving on to take the top award at World of WearableArt™ in New Zealand. British sculptor Max Patte, one of the 2009 WOW® judges, said of the dress "It works on every level – original design, beautifully executed and something that can be appreciated by everyone. Once again, it raises the game and expectations for next year's WOW."

Materials: Wood veneer: mahogany, lacewood, maple, cedar