When you have a done seven (favourite lower prime number) photographic books of your Barbies you need to do something with them. So I did. Thanks to everyone who took part! Aster la vista Barbie…..
The original Barbies – a first installation
Sarabeth was going to throw away these wooden trays. Debby suggested I might do something with them. I had already bought a Barbie sticker magazine and so I decorated the trays and the clock and put in the Barbies from my photographic project in the trays and one inside a deceased clock. They were the Barbies that went around Jaffa, Pez Barbie, Barbie in a furry coat and Goddess Barbie.
Barbies on a Barbie Pink Canvas
One of my neighbours left out an old broken canvas. Well three of them. One is not usable but the other two were. I painted the square one black and I made a giant dotty mandala painting (see ). The other I repaired and painted it “Barbie” pink. I used the 15 Barbies I had recently bought in England (Milton Keynes actually!) for a song. Everytime some came round they chose a Barbie and placed her in a unique pose on the board. I sewed them in with waxed cord for macrame.
Before the project started, I just placed them randmoly so I could see how many would fit. Although 15 is not a prime number is is the sum of three primes (3+5+7) and multiple of 2 primes (3×5).
Here are all the people involved in the project. They were allowed to refuse and Sigalit indeed did!
Disco Barbie
Yasmeen gave me an old stretchy rainbow top and I made a dress for Barbie with a train that she could catch up in her hand. Meanwhile Galina gave me two metal cages that could be used for an old-fashioned Victoria Barbie. I spray-painted one gold as well as beads and disco balls and a green cat. I used some steam punk discs and put her in pink trainers. She has monochrome bells on her right hand and a rainbow assortment on her left hand. For her hair I used lots of hair ties from Good Pharm. Lev gave her the name Disco Barbie.
Imprisoned Barbies on a Cork Noticeboard
Debby found an old cork noticeboard. I had all these drawing pins – with small grey and white stones on the outside. So I decided, having decorated the corners and edges with textured fairy stickers, I would capture the four (3 pink and 1 purple) small Barbies with self striping sock yarn. These Barbies I bought on the Holloway Road, Archway, London.
My friends Christian and Maria gave me a load of Algerian sweets. I was already the third recipient. The sweets were incredibly sickly and all made of almond. We ate a few and then I gave most of them away. Christian suggested the Barbies would look better in this box rather than within the rather cheap aluminium frame. It took some doing to remove the frame without ruining the cork but I did it! Debby suggested rope as an internal frame. And Yasmeen suggested we call it “Trafficked Barbies” which really resonated with me. Thanks all! Christian since then said it is too narrow a title as it doesn’t allow the viewer independent thought. He suggested calling it Barbies tied up in an Algerian sweet box. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm
Barbie escapes the clutches of the hummingbird’s beak by a hair’s breath…..
I went to a painting evening at The Tel Aviv Art Studio at 42 Frug. I sat next to some lovely young people who were from France and Germany and to include me changed to speak English. Then Kylie came and sat next to me and painted a really beautiful red flower. For relaxation she paints bottles at home and lives between Haifa and Acre. The wine was flowing and the food amazing (cheese, crackers, roasted veggies, loads of fresh fruit and brownies.
We had a 30 cm x 40 cm canvas and were copying a Yayoi Kusama hummingbird with a red flower. To overcome her childhood trauma Yayoi paints with lots of dots.
I like spirals so included them in my painting. As we used gauche paints (liquidy and quick drying) I experimented by put lots of paint on top of other colours and ended up with 5 marbled circles (on top of spirals).
My hummingbird was not great so when I returned home with my canvas I applied real feathers and puff paint for his crown. I embellished her beak with a snappy and sharp and scary hair-clip beak. I didn’t have any spare Barbies to use for this piece so suggested Barbie’s exit from the clutches of the hummingbird’s beak with a pair of pink Barbie shoes.
Saree Barbie is a Ganesh devotee
This time I made the saree for Barbie having followed a YouTube video. She has an orange Ganesh (who went round Dubai airport at the time of the Hindu festival of Diwali) and four instrument playing Ganeshs at her feet. I painted the background using stencils with felt tip pens and watercolours.
Barbie in her multicoloured dream coat
I went on a course to learn how to do punch needle work. It appears I do not have the patience for this and in fact do not really like the end product. The teacher was wonderful and the rest of the women there loved what they were doing but I went off piste. Firstly I used my own yarn (alpaca as opposed to the provided acrylic which was better in fact!), secondly I “imprisoned” some fleece to variable degrees of sucess and thirdly I thought I would use this new technique on Barbie. I had brought with me a canvas painted Barbie pink and a Barbie. I had fun “imprisoning” her using the punch needle. I redid it at home with firstly dressing her in a velvet back shift, using black yarn for her boots, rainbow fleece with pink needle punched yarn and a rainbow rubber band necklace.
Rainbow Barbie
When out and about recently I found some coloured glue gun glue. Plain and glittered. I thought it might be a good idea to see if I could drape a small Barbie on a piece of A4 Indian Khadi paper with rainbow colours. This meant chopping up 1cm pieces of glue, arranging them in rainbow order and feeding them into the glue gun. I didn’t see much yellow and the pink was plentiful so I gave her pink sleeves and shoes. She is now sitting pretty in The Magic Tea Box that Jean gave me decades ago. She needs a friend on the other side. Probably using the glittery glue sticks.
Barbie tries her hand at a horse-led, kitchen rainbow slalom
One of many Barbies found by Jennifer had a “Femme and Fierce” dress. I painted a piece of wood I found a pale pink and sawed off the small wooden dowels and put on a chain to hang it up. With some whisks, horses also provided by Jennifer on her travels to collect Barbies for me as well as a ribbon I found, unknotted, washed and ironed, as well as 16 tubes of rainbow coloured beads I made a slalom run.
Then I realised she would be rather cold so I knitted her leggins, wristies and a headband. I gave her some pink sticks to help ski properly.
Disco Barbie
Yasmeen gave me some clothes to fix for her. Great as I love mending. And some clothes to repurpose. And some to chop up and use for my Barbie projects. This was a shiny rainbow stretchy vest top. It would make an ideal ball gown for disco Barbie. Then I used one strap for her head piece and secured it with rainbow coloured hair elastics. When I showed Lev, he told me she looked like disco Barbie – so here she is with her hand held disco ball.
The Barbie photobooks
Barbie in the Toilet
I found super cheap toilet brushes in my local tambour run by a lovely woman Shoshanna who keeps everything in small cardboard boxes. Each white plastic toilet brush and holder was 10 shekels (around £2). I covered mine in small Barbie stickers and varnished it.
And it was Tova’s birthday – my most committed Barbie supporter so she had to have one too!
I think this is enough “homage to Barbie” now!
