Frances Hawker

Team Leader of Make-Up Dept

New Zealander Frances was working as a Window Dresser in Wellington's premiere department store, Kirkcaldies & Stains, when a friend suggested she visit her in Europe.

Frances decided to take that opportunity to travel the world, and eventually ended up in London, where she found work in a special foam and plastics company. Her role there included creating body parts for medical procedures and demonstrations. Little did she know that this job would be setting her up for future employment at Weta Workshop.

On return to New Zealand, Frances sent in her portfolio to Weta Workshop, and covered it completely in foam latex to ensure it stood out - which it did! Frances was invited to join the Weta Workshop team shortly afterwards, and in 2003, was completing pickups for The Return Of The King in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Since the trilogy, Frances has continued on at the Workshop, creating the weapons and the castings for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe film; foam latex parts for King Kong; the headcasts of the mannequins featured at the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre; hair punching for the Northern Lights installation in the US; the puppets for New Zealand television show The Killian's Curse; and flocking and hair punching on the statues from The Lonely Dog art series.