Hattiesburg teen Aubri Sparkman has been announced as a finalist in the 23rd annual “Stuck at Prom Scholarship Contest” for her creation of a duct tape dress.
Sparkman, who is the youngest artist in her hometown to have a public mural, was selected to compete against four other contestants after submitting a music-themed dress.
According to Sparkman, the dress took approximately 66 hours to make using 14 rolls of duct tape and other materials, such as hot glue and zippers.
“I did use a few extra things just to lay it on top of a plastic tablecloth and some paper, but the majority of it is definitely duct tape,” Sparkman said.
The 17-year-old high school student explained that she experimented with duct tape for a while before deciding to officially enter the competition.
“I did make a miniature model version of it first to just kind of see if I could actually use duct tape,” Sparkman said. “It did take a lot of experimenting and starting over, but in total, this dress took about 66 hours. Duct tape is not the easiest thing to make clothing out of.”
Sparkman stated that her inspiration to make the dress music-themed came from her love to learn how to play different instruments and incorporate her musical talent into other forms of art.
“Music has been a big part of my life. I play a lot of instruments, so I always try to include music in a lot of my art,” Sparkman said. “I included several instruments that I play. I put the violin, the electric guitar, piano, and tambourine in the dress design as well.”
The two contestants that win the dress and tuxedo categories will walk away with $10,000 in college scholarships. One vote per category can be submitted every 24 hours and will be collected on the competition’s website until Wednesday, July 12.
The winners will be announced on July 19.
