Winifred 'Winnie' Weaver

I created Winifred ‘Winnie’ Weaver for The Wire Works project, commissioned by Warrington Borough Council. ‘Winnie’ has now been acquired by Warrington Museum and Art Gallery for their permanent collection. Inspired by my research into the history of wire making in Warrington this work focuses on women in wire. ‘Winnie’ is designed to represent women working in wire companies through the centuries. Her name ‘Winnie’ arose spontaneously during the making process and only later I realised that her formal name ‘Winifred’ contained the letters of the word ‘Wire’. Materials including woven and welded wire meshes are all drawn from the sophisticated range used at Locker Group, Warrington. I worked with Peter a fabricator / welder who realised the framework from my scale drawings. I then applied many layers of mesh and decoration to tell her stories including the cottage industry origins when women and children would make pins – their hands being the nimblest. Her headscarf is a throwback to those worn by the 1950’s mattress support makers.