Irene Sparks, the former Oamaru woman who, as of yesterday, officially holds the largest collection of ties in the world, says she plans to "see if somebody would be interested enough, crazy enough" to exhibit her Guinness World Records collection.
"My second part of the dream was that I would be able to exhibit them," she said when reached by phone at her new Waimate property yesterday.
At the July 29 count for the record attempt, Mrs Sparks had several wall hangings, or other art pieces already on display and said she would not sew the ties in her collection together, but interweave them into "big daisies, big kaleidoscopes, big pictures".
To set the record, her collection of 21,321 individual, different ties had to be counted in one day. And, in a count open to the public, Mrs Sparks and about 20 friends and volunteers counted her collection, documenting the process meticulously.
Two weeks later she sent away photographic and video evidence to the records management team at Guinness World Records.
She was anxious about whether she had met all the stringent requirements to challenge one of its titles and also because she feared she might get pipped before her title was official. That made yesterday’s news a "relief" after the 12-week wait.
Mrs Sparks beat American Derryl Ogden’s 12-year-old record of 16,055 by 5266. He collected his ties over his life.
She said she understood his tie collection had been sold in its entirety after his death.About 80% of Mrs Sparks’ collection came from visits to more than 250 South Island op shops.
But she also received thousands of ties after now-retired Otago Daily Times The Wash columnist Dave Cannan put out an appeal for ties two years ago.
"It was four years in the coming, it was four months in the planning, and then of course it was just this one day of the execution — and it all came together and the people were awesome, the help that I got from Oamaru people and my friends.
"We’re only a small country of what, 4 million people now? And I got my ties over four years in op shops and donations, but imagine if you lived in the States or even Australia. There’s lots more people, lots more op shops — just more ties — so if somebody was dedicated and wanted to do it, they could."
Mrs Sparks’ collection included several one-of-a-kind handmade ties, top brands like Oscar de la Renta and Versace, and many that were worth the $2 most op shops charge for a tie.
