Artist to superhero
16/02/2011 2:31:00 p.m.
THE 25 year-old artist started life in Golden Bay, Takaka. She first entered the World of WearableArt (WOW) at age eight, having watched her mother and a friend do the same, and has now entered no less than 14 WOW competitions.
Prebble’s life makes a great case for alternative education – when she was only 13, with the full support of her family, she left school to follow her dreams.
“School was tough for me and I wasn’t getting much out of it. I felt I got more back from my art, so I made the decision to leave and focus on Wearable Art.”
The support of her parents was integral to later success; to get materials Prebble’s father had to drive her over the winding roads of Takaka hill to Nelson, and they never doubted their daughter’s ability to decide for herself what she wanted.
“They were very encouraging. I always knew I was free to pursue whatever I wanted to do and they would support me however they could.”
That first year of school, Prebble won both the Supreme Award and the People’s Choice Award for the local Bay Art competition, and went on to sell her piece.
“That really solidified my decision, I thought ‘yep, I can do this’,” she says.
Prebble received funding to help her design her own course, tailored to fit what she wanted to achieve. She learnt skills that were important to running a small business, like accounting, and once a week she spent one-on-one time learning from local artists. By the age of 14, Prebble was earning enough money to fully fund her creative projects.
At 15, Prebble won her first ever WOW award (in fact she won two), and at age 18, in what she calls “a complete dream come true”, she became the competition’s youngest ever Supreme Winner with her design Eos.
“After that the media attention was crazy. It was a really nice feeling to be recognized for my work,” she says.
Having hit such success, many would be happy to lie back and bathe in the glory for a while. Not Prebble.
“My dad always said ‘preparation meets opportunity’. Opportunities come when you’re working towards them; it’s about keeping on going.”
Prebble spent five months travelling the world honing her craft. She completed an internship at a fashion house in Dubai, worked in Alexander McQueen’s workshop in the UK, and took a costume course in New Jersey with one of her favourite designers Sha Sha Higby.
When she got back, it was time for her next dream. When she was 13, Prebble’s mother had shown her a newspaper article about Weta Workshop and its co-founder Richard Taylor, and by 14 she was determined to work there.
On her 21st birthday, Prebble started work at Weta on Avatar.
“It was my very first film and I was there right from the beginning. To be put in a position like that when I was so young was so amazing,” she says.
Prebble was sworn to secrecy for a year of the two and a half years she worked on the film. She made costumes, jewellery and added detail to weaponry – Prebble made main character Jake’s knife.
“It’s a real achievement for me, to make something that’s so significant in the film. Even if most people might not notice it,” she laughs.
Prebble now focused on her next goal.
“Working on other people’s designs was been incredibly valuable, but now I’m interested in doing it on my own. I want to take my skills and design ideas and push myself as far as I can go, purely for the sake of it,” she says.
Prebble, who describes her work as full body jewellery made to fit the body, “as if it were a moving canvas”, is working towards a solo exhibition. Her current project is head-to-toe sterling silver with silk and swarovski crystals, bringing to mind more ‘couture’ than ‘costume’. She’s also putting together a portfolio, so she can be prepared when Lady Gaga or Beyonce gives her a call.
On top of all that, a teenage fan from the US is turning her into a superhero for a book. Her super-skill is the ability to make costumes with special powers hidden in their seams.
One thing you’ll never hear attached to Prebble is ‘under-achiever’.
