A SALTCOATS woman has won $25,000 after she came top in a Netflix show costume competition.
Shona Peden transformed herself by crafting ‘an amazingly detailed replica’ of hit TV show Ratched’s hydrotherapy pool.
The television series’ star, Sarah Paulson said Shona was ‘magnificent’.
The American psychological thriller tells the backstory of the infamous Nurse Ratched, based on the character of the same name from Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Shona, who is a trainee architect, said: “Sometimes you struggle for a reason to get creative, Halloween is the perfect excuse.”
In one episode, the hydrotherapy bath is used as a ‘treatment’ for lesbianism, but it features later as a murder weapon.
Sarah Paulson, who plays the twister title character, said: “The dreaded hydrotherapy tub may not have cured any ladies from their nature of their urges but it boiled one crooked PI (private investigator) and made Shona from Scotland $25,000 richer.
“Along with being a serious Ratched fan, Shona is quite the skilled artisan who handcrafted an amazingly detailed replica that was wearable costume.”
Show creator Ryan Murphy and star Ms Paulson invited fans to dress up as their favourite Ratched character for a chance to win the prize money.
Shona saw a lot of the entries were from highly skilled make-up artists using techniques to transform themselves into characters from the show complete with gory prosthetics.
The 26-year-old, who is also studying at the Glasgow School of Art, saw the opportunity to do something original.
“I got some foam from someone on Facebook Marketplace, they’d stripped down their old sofa bed.
“I carved the foam into the bath shape, I used hard board for the tiles, and actual plumbing fittings for the pipes and the thermostat.”
Mr Murphy said: “Sometimes the most fun Halloween costumes are the impractical ones. Indeed, it takes a pretty clever person to wake up and think ‘this Halloween, I’m going to be the hydrotherapy tub from Ratched’, and yet Shona Peden that’s exactly what you did and we are here for it.”
What will Shona do with winnings? She would like a brand new bathroom - killer hydrotherapy pool not included.
Ms Paulson said: “With thousands of entries from all over the world, Ryan and I and the rest of the Ratched team were completely overwhelmed by the talent and the time you all spent to honour our show.
“Subsequently, it was nearly impossible to make a decision to woe would be our top three.
“Never could we have imagine that the person who had turned themselves into an inanimate object would win this contest but in true 2020 fashion that is exactly what has happened.”
Check out Shona's Instagram here.
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