Bibbie

January 31, 2010

Bibbie

Bibbie is a “blank slate” doll created for a Traveling Doll Project. She’ll travel around other artists through the mail. Each artist will add something to Bibbie as she goes, interpreting her according to their artistic vision, and write in an art journal. Eventually she will return completed, and the journal will be filled.

The thing I love about Bibbie the most right now is her tutti-frutti hair. It has been floating around my stash for quite some time now (several years, actually), and I am so excited because I think it’s a perfect starting point for her. What a personality it gives her, wouldn’t you agree?

Bibbie was the name of my late grandmother’s friend. One of the fondest memories when I was a little girl (and my grandparents still lived in Brooklyn and hadn’t retired and gone off to Florida yet), is of my grama and her friend with the funny name. They would talk in Yiddish (‘Jewish’ as they called it) and thought I didn’t understand them. Maybe I didn’t then, but I do now! Bibbie is a certain dialect of Yiddish that comes from “Boobie, ” which comes from the Hebrew word “booba”- or doll. (not to be confused with Bubby– Yiddish for ‘granny.’) So Basically, Bibbie is Yiddish for Dolly. What a cute name, huh?

Bibbie is still completely undressed because she has to wait for the other artists to dress her. She did mention that she’s feeling a little co-wuld… she definitely needs some clothes. I hope she won’t be too embarrassed if I show off her lovely “unshapely” body with love handles. She just had a knish for lunch and an extra helping bowl of matzo ball soup. I have to figure out what to make her for dinner. Something ge-shmock, I’m sure! (ge-shmock = ‘delicious’ in Yiddish.)

I know- maybe a tongue and mustard sandwich. And some chopped liver. (Yuck)

Here she is from behind. I think she has a very nice tooshie.

Bibbie is made of cloth with layers of different concoctions that make her skin smooth, durable, and shiny. Her eyes are made of polymer clay. I think she needs some eyelashes. Maybe one of the other ladies will give her some 🙂

By the way:

Bibbie’s body was made with my TIKVAH cloth doll pattern. Same doll, different hair and slightly different face. You can find the Tikvah pattern in my shop and try these wonderful techniques yourself 🙂

THE JOURNAL

Along with the doll, I created a traveling journal to record Bibbie’s travels.
It’s sort of a “green” journal, made entirely of recycled materials.
The pages are made of grocery bags that were cut and ironed (yes, ironed), and the cover is watercolor paper that my daughter “went to town with.” I let her play with my Holland watercolors one day, and so I had these gorgeous samples waiting to be used for something special.

I added some lace, trim, glass tiles and a few pretty beads. That was all! It was kind of time- consuming, but I like how it came out so it was worth the effort. It was a good experiment!

Here are a few different angle shots of the front cover

This is the first page of the journal. I just brushed gesso down on the paper. It will be very interesting to see how other people figure out how to do art on grocery bags!
The character in the middle is a “blob doll.” She is a rubber stamped image that I stamped onto a piece of silk I pre-treated with fabric medium. (If you don’t put fabric medium on fabric before stamping it, it could be blurry). I then sewed it to another piece of silk RST, cut it out, turned it, and made a sort of flattish “blob doll.” I was into the rubber stamp thing, and I happened to have this odd doll parts stamp, so I figured, ‘why not?’

This is the first “entry.” It’s a collage I made with fortune cookie thingies that I’ve been collecting (it’s a Jewish habit to eat Chinese take-out on Sunday) It says, ‘Good things happen to those who make dolls.’

I think one of those fortunes says that I will be rich and famous one day. I will have to go get some more Chinese food just to make sure.