Northern Barbie makes her debut at Iqaluit craft sale
Rabbit-fur trim, sealskin kamiks, and traditional tattoos adorn plastic fashionista
Northern Barbie features hand-sewn, beaded orange T-shirts and flat feet that fit into tiny kamiit. (Photo courtesy of Tuqqaasi Nuqingaq)
Crafters Margaret Lawrence, left, and Tuqqaasi Nuqingaq display Nuqingaq’s handmade line of Inuk Barbie fashions at the Inuksuk High School craft sale last Saturday. The outfits include orange shirts that read “every child matters,” in Inuktitut. (Photo by Daron Letts)
Ballet Wishes Barbie, Pink Puffy Dress Barbie and Miss Astronaut Barbie are among the collectible dolls featured by the Mattel brand this holiday season.
None are as exclusive as the limited-edition series of Northern Barbie (no affiliation with Mattel), which debuted Saturday at the Inuksuk High School craft sale.
“They were hot off the needle,” said Margaret Lawrence, who helped Inuksuk art teacher Tuqqaasi Nuqingaq sew elements of the 10 Inuit-styled dolls in time for the sale.
The doll sports a beaded orange T-shirt emblazoned with “every child matters” in Inuktitut syllabics.
She also wears a rabbit fur-trimmed amauti, sealskin kamiks, hand-sewn snowpants, and kakiniit, or traditional tattoos.
Lawrence and Nuqingaq sold the dolls for $40 each — about the same price as a store-bought Barbie in Iqaluit.
The plastic dolls beneath the Arctic fashions were part of Mattel’s Curvy Barbie line first released one decade ago.
“They don’t look anorexic and emaciated,” Lawrence said, contrasting them with the original doll’s grossly unrealistic proportions.
These dolls’ rubber feet fit into tiny traditional footwear, rather than being permanently contoured for stilettos.
All but one of the dolls were sold over the weekend and the last one is already spoken for, the pair said.
Nuqingaq introduced her students to the art of making doll clothing last year, during her first term teaching at the school.
She was a student herself for the two years before that, as she learned to sew for the first time in the Nunavut Teacher Education Program at Nunavut Arctic College.
Previously only familiar with cross-stitch, Nuqingaq was taught to sew by crafting amautiit for larger dolls by the late Iqaluit educator, Annie Demcheson.
Nuqingaq reduced Demcheson’s pattern on a photocopier to create the pullover parkas in Barbie-sized dimensions.
Mattel itself released a limited edition Inuit Legend Barbie in 2005.
Barbie-sized amautiit are on display at the start of the Inuksuk High School craft sale last Saturday. (Photo courtesy of Tuqqaasi Nuqingaq)
Sold exclusively in Canada, the blonde doll wore a gold ballgown adorned with faux fur and geometric designs.
“The clothes were crappy fabric that was plasticky,” Lawrence said.
Today, the collectible dolls sell on eBay for between $280 and $600.
Northern Barbie’s outfits are made with true-to-life craftsmanship that take time and labour to create, Nuqingaq said, so there won’t be any more available in time for Christmas.
However, a new line of fashions for Every Child Matters Barbie, along with a new “Hunter Ken,” will be dressed in time for Mother’s Day, she said.
Those are so cute and well made and unique.
She needs to charge way more then only $40 because Laboure, time, material etc. is way more then what she was asking for.
If the other plasticky were sold for $600, she should charge about the same.
Us Inuit Artist need to stop ripping off ourselves because none Inuit that buy always Bargen everything we are selling, and sell it for triple in the south.
None Inuit also think they can buy everything we make for the cheapest they can get and say things like, Awe I paid only this much from another Inuk. That is why I hate seeing on FB sell/swap when there are Inuit selling their art work for so dirt cheap just for fast money.
Example, I sell something for $80 and there is another similar thing is being sold only for $25. That is not good at all because us Inuit awesome Artist needs to be recognize for our hard beautiful work like this lady who made the barbies too cheap.
Lets be more confident and be more proud of our work, because we will never get further if we let people that buy take advantage of us.
Wrote by Artist that care for my fellow Inuqatigiiq Artist.
Non Inuit and Inuit alike will take a good deal when offered them. No need to pretend its exploitation or you being ripped off.
The true value of an item exists somewhere between the subjective appraisal of both seller and buyer. I doubt you would sell many, if any of these dolls for $600 at the craft fair, but try it out and see for yourself.
Price discovery and rest of you that put your thumbs down, you probably are all one of those that try to Bargen cheap cheap and probably do not even know how to sew and only spend time on your phone putting Artist down.