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.
Barbie Whittington
I wanted to represent Barbie as Mayor of London instead of Dick. I work at the Whittington Hospital where Dick turned around in Archway to return to London. He had his red gingham bundle on a stick and his black cat. I made this Barbie with a lacey white cotton top, trousers from an old sock, stockings from a black hair tie and white laces. Her velvet black hat had a black feather too. She is worn out and sitting down. I made a street scene by covering a piece of foam I found ont he street with a stiff grey fabric and poured loads of stones and concrete lumps over it and sealed it with PVA glue.
Ken and Barbie fall in love, sight unseen, on “Love is Blind”. Will they tie the knot under the chuppah?
I have to admit it. I just totally love “Love is Blind” and having been watching the American version since the beginning. All 8 seasons. And the one UK one. So, I know the score. Here is the blurb modified from Wikipedia.
The series follows an equal number of men and women hoping to find love. For 10 days, the men and women date each other in purpose-built “pods”, small rooms where they can talk to each other by speaker but not see each other, except through a blue translucent barrier that allows no visual detail. The cast members are initially paired in a speed-dating format but later can choose to have longer dates. The daters may extend a marriage proposal whenever they feel ready. A couple meets face-to-face only after a marriage proposal is accepted. The engaged couples then head to a couples’ retreat at a resort for one week. During this trip, they spend time getting to know each other and have their first opportunity to be physically intimate. They also meet the other couples participating in the experiment. During this period, they are not connected to anyone in the outside world. After the couples’ retreat, the engaged couples move to an apartment complex in the city where they live for the final three weeks of the experiment. They are reunited with their devices as well as family and friends. At the apartments, they meet their partners’ friends and families and learn more about their partners’ lives, exploring issues such as finances, recreation, personal habits, and their ultimate primary residence. They also plan weddings to be held at the end of four weeks. During this wedding planning period, the women go wedding dress shopping and the men go suit shopping together, bringing a few friends or family members along. They have joint hen and stag nights and at the altar, each participant decides whether to say, “I do” and get legally married. Mostly one of the couples (often the women) say no!
When I made a Barbie what I thought would be a fairy dress, it looked more like a wedding gown. And I had a Ken. I used organza for a puffy skirt to fit over a tight fitting shift dress made from a stretchy white top with separate sleeves. And an organza veil. Ken had big stomping boots, a vest top and cropped trousers made out of lone sock. Both sported a Magen David necklace. I made the chuppah out of a shoe box base, cut up a bamboo cane into 4 pieces with my small jig-saw and covered them with pretty paper tape from Podgorica. I glued them in place with my glue gun. I put the Ken and Barbie on top of a pretty pink yo-yo but they kept wobbling about. What better than to put them in glasses reminiscent of breaking the glass – a hugely iconic part of a jewish wedding. I used a sheet and painted stripes to make a tallit for them to get married under. I used 8 cords in each corner and three small colourful elastic bands in lieu of knots.
Who will say yes? Ken? Barbie? Neither? Both…..
Yarn string Barbie gets all knotted up in a macrame swing
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!
