When Christmas and Birthday come together in January there must be....

...a fellow collector getting rid of her Sindy-Furniture Collection!
 

You know, there are moments in a life of a Barbie collector, where everything comes together. In this case i mean it literal.


I´m obsessed with vintage Sindy furniture! It is hard to find a realistic looking 1/6 furniture piece and the Sindy-Stuff works great! No pink and no strange scales, like Mattel is doing it, most of the time. For about 10 years now, the yellow Sindy kitchen from 1979 was somehow impossible to get.
It reminds me of my grandmothers kitchen in the 80ies, that`s why i wanted to have it so bad... I searched everywhere i could, went on Ebay, flea markets ect. There where times when the kitchen was near but it never worked out. One time it was too expensive, another time it was completely broken.

There where a few other furniture things i was looking for, but never that intense. I thought by the right time, they will come.

Now a few days ago, i went on the Flea-Market website where i usually sell stuff i don`t need anymore (Willhaben.at) and just for fun, without expecting anything, i typed in `Sindy Furniture` on the search Area.
I could not believe my eyes. There was fellow collector who had listed all of the Items i was looking for years at once in a set and for a fair price! Not only the kitchen but also the white kitchen cabinet, the canopy bed and a wonderful Rococo/60ies dresser, that i did not even know about before, and much more!! And because i want to do a Room-Box soon i thought: `Bingo! Now or never! `

I have a Budget aside for this kind of case and i immediately wrote her a SMS the next day in the morning. She said i was the first one to call and invited me to come over and get it! I was really nervous and could not believe it until i was in her apartment and packed everything together.
She has limited space and had to get rid of a few things, even though i felt it was hard for her. But i hope she`s happy to know that i really, really will cherish every single piece. In case your reading this: Thank you so much !

The universe was on my side this time! Everything worked out wonderful and i am proud owner of fabulous Sindy furniture now!

And what do we learn from that? Just let go. When you do not find a certain piece that you want really bad, think : `Ok. It is out there. It`s not a question if, it`s just a matter of when i will find it!` This always works for me. Of course, i don`t stop looking, but i do it more relaxed then.

Take a first, glimpse look:

Listening to: Madonna - `Lucky Star`

Yai!!!! I love it!

A few flaws, one foot is missing and the mirror must be replaced.

Need`s a bit gold-paint, but will be great looking!

Also a few flaws here. But nothing i can`t fix.

I´m still looking for 3-6 yellow kitchen wall-cupboards to hang!!! If you have one or two or three or more in good condition and for a good and fair price and would like to sell them to me, please write me a message or a comment below! Oh! And of course: The yellow Washer! Never seen it anywhere! :(

Thank you!

Be kind to one another,


Axel

The thing about Barbie-Collecting is....

Heads in Boxes.

  
....you have to keep it somewhere!

A personal note.

I feel like I collect Barbie my whole life. When I was a child, I had a Barbie trunk to kept the clothes for her and a few furniture sets, which where stored under the bed. As I mentioned in earlier posts, my parents gave in and bought me a Barbie on special occasions, but they did not really like seeing me play with it. They loved me and wanted me happy, but at the same time they thought: `What might people think when our boy plays with Dolls ?` So I got mixed feelings about Barbie from the beginning. When I was a Teenager I discovered Grunge and Boys and packed up everything into boxes to move it to the attic.

In the late 90ies, when I already moved out my parents house and lived my own life in vienna, I found out about the Barbie-Collector line and immediate fell in love with it. I remember having a vitrine where I kept the ones i removed from the box. The other stuff was just in cabinets and again, under my bed. I used to buy collector items as well as Playline and Vintage. I did not have much of a plan back then. Just bought everything I liked. It was the first time you could find things you always wanted, easy on the Internet. So I bought all the 80ies Barbies I did not get as a child, I bought the Furniture Sets and a lot of clothes. I went to old toy-shop`s, flea markets, garage sales and met other collectors. Soon my apartment, which was not very big, was filled with Barbie. She was everywhere! I discovered that collecting is fun, but owning is hard. Barbie`s you love should not stay in the kitchen. I needed more plan.
After  my vitrine was full and my bedroom was a forest of pink boxes I had to move some things. Because I was in my early 20ies and I knew the price for the 90ies Playline things would go up after a few years, so I moved them to the attic in my parents house to keep them NRFB(which was very clever, I sell a lot of it now online and pay for my pivotal Body`s with this money!) The Collector Barbies, removed from the box, as well as some of my 80ies Barbie`s stayed in my vitrine.

At this time I lived together with my first boyfriend and I also infected him with the Mattel-Virus. He`s an costume-designer and he was the one who gave me my basic knowledge about sewing and costume history. I worked at the time as a make-up artist and hairstylist in the `Theater an der Wien` for the Musical-production `Mozart!`. We had a lot of fun re-creating the costumes from the musical (which where exceptional costly an inspiring! ) for Barbie!

But after a few years, as it is with first love, it ended and I had a hard time to get by and learn my lessons. My Barbie`s, from the vitrine and the once we worked on, ended up wrapped in plastic and in boxes - you guessed it - on the attic of my parents house. They reminded me of him and the great time we had together. It took me at about 2 years to find a new love and a new life and I worked hard on my career as a freelancer hairstylist, very hard. Barbie was still always there, but never that intense as she used to be in the late 90ies.
Also my second boyfriend was a very butch guy, not into Barbie at all! And because I loved him and did not yet know who I was and what makes me happy, I wanted to impress him and be the most masculine self I could be. Of course, at the time, I had very stereotyped views on manhood, due to parenting and Society. Barbie seemed to be something so feminine, I had to hide her.

It took me another 5 years, a Heartbreak, the Death of my best friend and a very good and caring Psychotherapist who encouraged me, to get my Barbie stuff down the attic into my apartment and my Passion for this little Lady, back.

Because I work in fashion, I find the Barbie hobby not so far away from my profession. It inspires me, it makes me happy to sew for Barbie and make her a little world. I will be 34 years old this year and I´m not ashamed of it or of me anymore. Why should I? Because some narrow minded people still think, a Guy should not `play` with Barbie? I see her more as my little miniature Model. To me, it is a Miniature-Hobby.
Some grown up guys have a complete Toy-train-Area build up in the cellar. Others paint their `World of Warcraft` - figures to play with them. I re-root and re-design Barbie and take beautiful pictures with her. What`s the difference? A Hobby is there to make you happy, not to stress you.

Since I am open about my Barbie-Hobby I also found out that none of my mostly heterosexual friends had a problem with it at all. If anything they encourage me an even take place in it. I am very thankfull for that. Well of course, that`s what the right friends should do.

 I now know, that I´m not the kind of guy to keep Barbie in the original Box. I want to work with her. Also I buy completely different know. I buy for my hobby, just stuff that I need. Not stuff I maybe want to re-sell some time. And i bought boxes. A lot of plastic boxes. For Heads, Body`s, Jewelery, Clothes, Accessory and Miniatures. I have a lot of plastic-baggy`s to protect everything. Presently I started to buy furniture again. My new passion are Room-Boxes. I`m planing to do one this year together with  the help of a very straight and very butch friend who is architect and loves doing this with me!
Furniture is hard to keep. The best thing is to have the original box to store it. Everything else goes in plastic and  big boxes.

Boxes. I have a lot of boxes! Boxes seem to be a very big part of my life. For storing my collection, I find them perfect. There is no Chaos anymore. I know exactly where everything is stored. And that is very relaxing.Also for my personal life.
 
But I´m still trying keep my thoughts and thinking about manhood/masculinity out of the box. And i hope that Society will some day too.

Listening to: Foo Fighters - `Best of you`

More Head`s. Note how great Joan Jett`s Head picks out! Those fab cheekbones....She`s gorgeous, can`t wait to give her long hair!

Body`s

Body`s, Ken`s and Barbie`s not used but precious in plastic and Box.

Shoe`s.

Jewelry.

More Jewelry and a few Hats.

A few miniatures.

Playline-Clothes in plastic and box.

Furniture in parts, wraped in paper or plastic.

Furniture in original Box and large Box to store it in a cabinet.

Doll-Stands.

Plastic-Baggy`s! A creative-Barbie-Collector`s best friend!

Re-rooting Box and the `box of shame`, with heads that are waiting for me to rerrot them.

So for know this work`s for me. I find out new things every day and i re-order also a lot. And i still buy. Putting it all away in cabinets is also a way to not get completely overwhelmed by Barbie and her Stuff. The apartment is still mine, not her`s!  But as i said, I´m working on a Room-Box for her and her furniture.

Also i am working on 2 new dresses  to shoot, so be curious about things to come!

How do you collect? What`s your Story? Any guys/girls out there who have experienced something similar? Do you find yourself in this story? I really would like to know...

Greetings from the still very snowy vienna,

Be kind to one another!

Axel