Alien Barbie and other Dolls

I posted this little darling, called Not-Bambi, on Facebook a while back along with a promise to dig out some pictures of some of the Altered Dolls I'd done years ago.  There was a lot of other altered plastic  stuff that got chucked simply because I didn't have room for it anymore but, with the exception of the picture below, these are all still with me. Not-Bambi is available as a 5x7 print as well as A4 and A3.  

These characters used to stand on my desk . . . . .

This is a detail from a piece called Sacred heart II  . . . . . chopping up dolls arms . . . is this any real occupation for a grown woman?

Oh, the trouble I had attaching the legs to this . . .  thankfully they came from one of the cheap Barbie copies which were soft but the material of the ghastly silver handbag was hard. A hand drill to make the holes and then a curved needle and some strong fishing line did the trick. This was my daughter's idea which was unusual because she normally gets a bit freaked out by this kind of thing.

How many Barbie heads can you get in a handbag? Why would you want to? Well, why not. This has always made me laugh . . . .

Barbie as Angel? The local pound shop was selling these heart shaped bags . . . . I wish now I'd bought all they had because sadly they don't do them any more.

This is my absolute favourite . . .  she sits and keeps me company while I work.

This was inspired by a bit of 1940's advertising in which the main tag line was " Who's a clever little woman then? " AAArgh!!! I used iron on transfer papers for the face and to copy the slogan from the paper to make it into a little apron.

The other favourite that keeps me company every day - I ought to find some kind of case to put her in lest she gets too dirty. She was such a labour of love . . . . I think of her as a Madonna of the Sea.

Well, this one is a kind of a St Sebastien . . . . I seem to remember this was about the worship of the body and of all things shallow and plastic. I sewed blue plastic birthday candle holders ( the kind you stick on a cake ) all the way round the edge of this with a large needle and strong fishing line. Absolute madness, looking back on it now!

I don't have a shot of this from the side but it is a bed shape with a headboard . . .  a version of Sleeping Beauty and a comment on the restrictive nature of women's clothing/fashion. Lots more sewing with fishing line!

And lastly this . . . .  Neon Dream . . . .  I found the acrylic box somewhere - I think it must have held sample cosmetics originally  . . . . all the little indentations were just begging for some plastic tat! So, there we go, a whistlestop tour round some of the stranger corners of my past work  . . . .  hope it amuses you as much as it did me when I made it all.