Fabric Art | Aisling's Diary

How to Remove ‘Green Ear’ from Barbie Dolls

Do you have a collectible Barbie® doll with “green ear”? Here’s how to remove most of it safely.

I haven’t found any product that removes ALL “green ear” and does it safely. Also, I wrote this article years ago, so there may be better products for this kind of project.

clearasil - a fix for barbie green ears

My Barbie / Green Ear Story

I have a great, vintage Barbie® doll in a red swimsuit and her original box, complete with stand.

However, that Barbie had green spots – stains in (not just on) the plastic -where her earrings used to be. It was a developing tragedy as the green spread a little more each year.

Then, I read that Extra Strength Clearasil will remove most of the green discoloration (but sometimes the skin dye, too) by leaching out the color. The active ingredient is Clearasil’s organic peroxide.

The cleaning process can be slow, taking up to a month, sometimes longer. Here’s what I did, and it might work for you.

Disclaimer: This information is provided as a guideline, not as specific advice for your dolls. The author assumes no responsibility for your repair & restoration efforts, and speaks only from personal experience, providing opinions about repairs.

If you have any questions, please consult a qualified doll hospital.

How to use Clearasil to reduce or remove Barbie “green ear”

Apply the Clearasil with a cotton-tipped swab. (Some choose to use the tip of a toothpick, for extra-precise application.)
Be sure to apply it to the stain. Avoid any painted areas, or “just fine” skin-colored areas.
Change the Clearasil every few hours, after each application has dried. (For me, the most dramatic reduction of green appeared after the first application, in about two hours.)
Keep in mind that the green may get worse before it gets better, as the green inside Barbie’s head is leached out, and becomes visible. (That didn’t happen with my doll.)

And, before you choose one approach to the ‘green ear’ problem, it’s not wise to mix treatments if one doesn’t work. (The plastic can turn brown.)

But remember, most doll restorers say that the green stains cannot be fully removed from most dolls.

Important: I accept no responsibility for results you may have, so please test the Clearasil on a not-important part of any stained doll (or other vinyl item) that you want to clean.

This cleaning tip is strictly for items where the staining is so severe, you have nothing to lose, and safer choices haven’t worked.

Other products that may work as well or better…

Twin Pines of Maine makes “Remove-Zit”, a product with organic peroxide that is intended specifically for treating plastics safely.

Related Link: Tips for Restoring Barbie and Other Plastic Dolls

More info about vintage Barbie, Ken, Francie, and Skipper dolls

If you’d like to learn more about vintage Barbie dolls, this book (shown at right) might be exactly what you seek!

And a search tip…

Remember that the Barbie^TM name has been trademarked and is very protected by the Mattel company. If you’re searching for more Barbie-related info, you may have better luck using the phrase “fashion doll.”

Important Legal Information

This website has no connection with the Mattel Corporation.

Advice about fashion dolls, including Barbie^TM, is provided as personal opinion. When restoring valuable dolls, always consult a professional before attempting any repair.

The name “Barbie” is a registered trademark of the Mattel Corporation.

Let’s see… did I say enough about trademarks, Barbies and green ear to protect myself..? *LOL*

Altered Dolls

Not quite an altered doll — Not exactly altered, and not exactly a doll…

Altered dolls usually (but not always) start with ready-made, store-bought dolls. They may be modified or even deconstructed to make a different art doll or mixed-media figure.

These can include anything from themed, customized Barbie^TM dolls, to Raggedy Ann gone wild, to McD’s doll toys that are made into jewelry or chess pieces.

However, that definition of altered dolls is the tip of the iceberg. For many doll artists, “altered dolls” mean anything that even vaguely resembles a doll. This takes altered dolls into paper arts, mixed media, and beyond.

My doll in the photo above is from around 2002 or so. She’s more an assemblage than an altered doll. My initial concept was to create a futuristic Kachina doll.

The face and feet were cast from existing dolls, using my mold process. The torso/body was a clear plastic cube filled with opalescent Easter grass. The arms were a single lucite rod, decorated with feathers.

(Thread didn’t attach the feathers as well as I’d hoped, so the thread was also glued in place.)

That doll was small enough to sit in my hand. (She was one of several I made at the time, and all dolls from that series are now in private collections.)

Here’s what’s important about altered dolls: There are no limits to what you can do!

December 2011 update

If you’re intrigued by altered dolls, here are some more recent altered art doll articles to inspire you. (If any of these links are broken when you visit, let me know in a comment. Thanks!)

C. Dianne Zweig – Kitsch ‘n Stuff: Altered Doll Assemblages: Using …

Altered Doll Assemblages: Using Up Your Vintage Junk. Creating Dolls Out of Vintage Junk I would love to be able to try my hand at making Altered Doll Assemblages out of vintage odds and ends. Like many of you who are …

Dianne’s illustrations look similar to the altered dolls and assemblages we used to make when I taught at Artfest. They’re quirky and strange and generally wonderful!

For me, those represent some of the roots of assemblage and altered dolls, going back to the Dada movement and maybe earlier.

Next, scroll down this linked article to see a few interesting altered paper dolls. I think this concept could be taken in very wild directions.

inkspired musings

inkspiredmusings.blogspot.com11/29/11

4, 9am – 4pm. I had a fun discovery today -. several completed altered paper dolls! 2 of them are Halloween themed, but I’ll still put them out. Here are 3 that I have scanned. The others need to be resized, etc. and I will share! …

If you like those altered paper dolls, you may enjoy the next examples of altered paper dolls:

Jumbled Crafts: Altered Dolls at Craft Room (offline as of 2020)

jumbledcrafts.blogspot.com6/15/11

Well I have never done anything like this before but it was so much fun. I didn’t know where to start really but the ideas just kept coming as I went along. What a great idea it is to alter a paper doll and I am pleased …

And another:

Sue’s Art of Craft: My First Altered Paper Doll – Love It!

suesartofcraft.blogspot.com
My First Altered Paper Doll – Love It! This month’s challenge at Craft Room is to make an Altered Paper Doll. Click the link in the sidebar for Craft Room Challenge to take part. I’ve never tried anything like this before and must …

Next, some art deco-style altered dolls at Etsy. What intrigues me is that the faces look like the ones I’ve made since 2002 (maybe earlier) using homemade molds. (The same kinds of molds I used for the futuristic kachina, above.)

I love seeing my ideas spread throughout the dollmaking community! (If you have other ways to use cast faces or other doll parts, please let me know. Leave a comment below.)

thechildrensgardenandseedcompany: My Latest Altered Dolls on Etsy

thechildrensgardenandseedcompany.blogspot.com10/28/11

Create a garden that will delight children. Become sensitive to what delights children- smells, textures, tastes…Create a place for adventures! Friday, October 28, 2011. My Latest Altered Dolls on Etsy …

Now we shift to another extreme, a downright creepy altered doll. It’s one of Natasha Morgan’s stylish dolls, inspired by the DC Comic Book character, the two-faced Mr. Dent. (However, it’s not one of the creepiest dolls I found, when I was searching for altered dolls to share with you.)

Natasha Morgan Art Dolls: Harvey – A Two Faced Altered Doll Portrait

natashamorganartdolls.blogspot.com7/1/11

Harvey – A Two Faced Altered Doll Portrait. Named by my Husband after the Two Faced vintage DC Comic Book character Mr Dent, I was inspired to make Harvey by a challenge I was asked to take part in on behalf of my …

If you liked that doll, be sure to see more at Zuzu’s Alter It Monthly.

And finally, returning to altered paper dolls and doll-related paper arts, here are some interesting and elaborate dolls & figures. (The website has music that starts playing on its own. If you’re at work, turn down your speakers.)

ALTERED EXPRESSIONS: Matchbox dolls!!

bloubell-alteredexpressions.blogspot.com5/4/11

Hi Betty, I’m so excited about your Matchbox Dolls tutorial…thank you so much! 🙂 I just love them! …

I could have continued this list for pages & pages, but I think it’s enough of an overview to give you some inspiration and starting points.

The concept of “altered dolls” is huge. From altered children’s dolls (plastic, etc.) to altered paper dolls, to assemblages and found art, to cast elements and odd bits & pieces… there’s a lot to play with!

Annie Faerie Dolls

Annie Maloney Morey - pindoll — Pindoll based on my great-grandmother, Annie Maloney Morey of Co. Cork, Ireland

This is one of a series of pin dolls that I made by hand.

First, I create my doll collages digitally, using antique photos and illustrations.

When I’m pleased with the design and colors, I print each doll onto iron-on transfer paper.

Next, I apply each doll design to cotton, usually unbleached muslin, raw silk, or a light-colored cotton.

The edges of the fabric are treated with Fray-Chek, a product that prevents the edges from fraying. (You can find it in any fabric shop or sewing supply store.)

Then I sew, quilt, stuff, and bead the doll by hand.

(This is a very relaxing activity, and I often assemble my dolls when I’m traveling by airplane.)

Finally, I add the beaded antennae and a simple pinback, so you can wear the pindoll as jewelry, or attach her to a curtain.

Because these are sewn, quilted, and beaded by hand, not machine, each doll is slightly different, and one-of-a-kind.

These dolls are three inches tall without the antennae, and nearly four inches tall with them.

This design includes the face of my great-grandmother, Annie Maloney Morey. She was a wealthy young woman who eloped to America (from County Cork, Ireland) to marry her True Love, a dashing local lad with eyes the color of the Caribbean and the reputation of a rake.

They had six children and lived happily ever after.

(These “Annie Faeries” sold out within minutes at Artfest 2001.)

Rust and Teal Pieced Bodice

This is another project started in the mid-1990s and not completed. Clearly, even good projects are sometimes put aside.

rstjmp

Basically, I was going to make myself a bunch of great wearable art pinafores.

Note: In the States, a pinafore is called a jumper. I grew up calling them pinafores, because… well, that’s what my family called them.

But, I ran out of enthusiasm when I went through a time of equating pinafores with ‘tasteful floral print dresses’ and tossed out every one of those sewing patterns.

At times, I’m impulsive like that. (Yes, it’s frustrating at times.)

So, this project was never completed.

Before I ran out of steam, I had strip pieced the front bodice shown above. It’s beaded by hand, and also embellished with some ‘crazy quilt’ stitching.

A lot of my fabric art embellishments have been inspired by the stitches on crazy quilts. I rely on Judith Baker Montano’s book, Elegant Stitches, shown in the right column. I’ve used her fabric art as references ever since I bought a copy of her hand-drawn notes that she’d photocopied to sell at quilt fairs in the 1970s.

I like to mix easy strip piecing with quirky color combinations, crazy quilt stitching, and glass beads… especially bugle beads and small seed beads.

For me, fabric art is about color and texture. The mix of fabrics, stitching and beads is, in my mind, a perfect combination for personal art expression.

Related links:

Judith Baker Montano’s website

At Home: Jewelry: Crazy Quilting.

Purple Fabric Art Jacket 1

ppljkt25 I’ve always loved the color purple. Almost every shade of purple delights me.

This is an original one-of-a-kind jacket that I created around 1992, using a Vogue designer jacket pattern. The fabrics are all 100% cottons.

On half of the front, I have hand-beaded with glass bugle and seed beads. I’ve also painted it with glitter paint.

pplbeads

On the other half of the jacket, front and back, I’ve made small dolls from crafts clothespins. Each doll is unique, and all of them are a little wild and off-balance.

ppldetail

This is a flashy jacket and — as of this writing — it’s a little 1980s in style. However, dazzle keeps returning to fashion, so this jacket will be stylish again in the future.

Meanwhile, it’s a great and whimsical display item.

Easy Rolled Cloth Beads

Scraps of fabric can be used to create rolled beads. Here’s the simplest version.

You’ll need fabric, white glue and water, and something thin to wrap the beads around. This can be a thin dowel, toothpicks, shishkebab skewers, thin cocktail straws, or… Well, see what you have around the house. You could even use heavy gauge wire such as a coat hanger.

First, decide if you want to use fabric “as is,” or embellish it. It doesn’t have to be cotton, but cotton absorbs glue most easily.

Dye, stain, paint, and embellish with color and perhaps glitter, if you like.

Then, cut or rip the fabric into thin strips. Remember that 100% cotton tears along straight lines. So, you can cut a small nick at the end, and then tear it from there.

Soak the fabric in a mixture of white glue and water. I’d guess that a 50/50 mix would work. This isn’t precise. You want it thick enough to stick together, but thin enough not to be gloppy.

Roll each bead around whatever you’re using at the center. The purpose of this is just to keep a hole in the middle. You’ll remove the dowel (or wire or toothpicks) when the glue is mostly dry.

(If you wait until the bead is completely dry, it may be permanently adhered to the center support. Removing the center early allows the middle dry faster.)

If you want to prevent the beads from sticking to the center support, coat the support with a non-stick lecithin kitchen spray. However, this can make it harder to roll the beads; the fabric will tend to slip as you’re rolling.

If the beads were saturated with the glue-and-water mix, the torn edges generally won’t unravel.

It’s best to roll the beads to the size that you want. After they’re made, if you want them shorter, it will be necessary to cut them to size with a saw, or the cutting blade on a rotary tool.

clothrolld1

An alternative–probably better and more colorful than rolling rectangles–is to cut the fabric into triangles.

Roll the beads so that the widest side is at the center, and the tip of the triangle is on the outside of the bead.

Ribbon Embroidery and Beading

This shows part of the ribbon embroidery & beading on a jumper bodice started in the 1990s.

In real life, the area shown is about 7.5″ x 4″.

I was inspired by a crazy quilt that I saw many years ago, and the bright embroidery on the black velvet reminded me of fireworks. I knew that, someday, I’d want to create a similar effect with wearable art.

After I bought the fabric and cut out the bodice, my inspiration was renewed by a vividly colored garden photo that I saw on a magazine cover. (Inspiration is everywhere!)

As I’m simplifying my surroundings, I’d like to intensify what is around me, by using lots of these brilliant colors against black, white, and forest green.

The work you see here is entirely handsewn, with silk ribbon and glass beads on black pinwale corduroy. So far, there’s probably about ten or fifteen hours’ of sewing in it, mostly done in front of the television.

I know that most people will never guess the amount of work in this, but the end result will be dazzling. I think it is, already.

Baby’s Blocks Gone Wild

boxq In 1991, I designed and made this quilted wallhanging for a challenge in Salt Lake City, Utah.

A “challenge” is kind of competition. Usually it includes a rule that all participants must follow. That rule is designed to make the competition more interesting… or difficult. In many cases, the challenge element is a particular fabric, batting, or other major element.

In this challenge, I had to use a certain fabric, and it had to appear in at least 20% of the finished quilt.

The challenge fabric was the floral that appears in the Baby’s Blocks section, as well as bordering the top and bottom sections (not the actual border, which is black).

I rarely use muted, tasteful florals in my work. I struggled to find a way to use the challenge fabric.

Weeks passed and the deadline loomed, and nothing about that fabric inspired me.

Then I realized that I could work in contrasts–meek with wild, traditional with jazzy.

The finished wall hanging is 32″x52″, and at the time I called it, “Threads of the Past, Visions of the Future.” It is pieced and appliqued, with some stenciling (the small yellow dots) as a surface treatment.

This quilt took top marks, winning an award for originality and design.

Today I call it, “Baby’s Blocks, Gone Wild” and I’m eager to do more with contemporary twists and traditional designs.

Baby Quilt – Pink and Red

cromquilt This is a baby quilt that I made in 2003. It’s made with over a dozen fabrics, each 100% cotton.

Each square in the quilt is about 1″ x 1″.

It could be very tedious to make a quilt like this, but the top created with strip piecing.

This is a faster technique that works with strips of fabric, cut after they’re sewn together.

Cutting, sewing, and ironing the top took about six hours, total.

The technique comes from a fabulous book, Strip-Pieced Watercolor Magic: A Faster, New Approach to Creating 30 Watercolor Quilts. The book gives precise directions for selecting fabrics, and how much of each for the 30 projects in the book.

I selected the fabrics using a piece of clear red plastic.

(I bought it years ago. It was designed to help determine light and dark shades without the distraction of colors. I’ve never seen another one of these, but any sheet of clear red plastic or acetate should work fine.)

I modified the design from a pattern for a full-sized bed quilt, to create this small baby quilt for a newborn.

I use blanket-style, needle-punched quilt bats for quilts. They cost a little more, but hold up better in the laundry.

Generally, I tie baby quilts rather than quilting them. Baby quilts are laundered often and the batting starts to fall apart.

With a tied quilt, you can simply undo the yarn or embroidery floss (used to tie it), discard the quilt batting, replace it with a fresh layer, and retie the quilt.

(All of my three children loved my handmade quilts when they were little, and I learned to be practical about this.)

Rocking chair – reseating

rchair This rocking chair is called a Lincoln rocker by some, and a Kennedy rocker by others. It’s the same design that Jack Kennedy had in the White House. He felt that it helped his back.

The restored chair is shown at right.

This particular chair came from a yard sale on Boston’s North Shore (an area by the ocean, north of Boston) and it cost $60 many years ago when my younger daughter and I found it. She could “see” me rocking in it, and so we brought it home, propped in the trunk of my car, and held in place with nylon camping rope.

rcb The chair was well-used and well-loved for several years, until — as shown at left — the dry woven seat finally began to sag and then collapse.

I was dismayed, and knew that I wanted to do something wonderful with the chair, and make a present of it to my older daughter. It seemed naturally to belong to her, after awhile. I don’t know why, but certain things are very organic and clearly “belong” to certain people.

When we were in a bookstore in Stratford-upon-Avon (England) in 1996, I saw an inspiring book, Country Rag Crafts, which I bought and shipped back to the States.

The book included instructions for a woven footstool. As soon as I saw the color photos, I knew that was what I wanted to do with the rocking chair… with different colors, of course.

First, I wrapped fabric strips around (and around, and around) 3/8″ sisal rope (“seagrass” in the UK). As I wrapped, I secured the fabric with hot glue.

Then I wove the seat, in a fairly intricate design that gives maximum coverage with minimal bulk. The design starts at the corners and works in.

The entire project took about three days, working about three hours a day. I worked on it while watching favorite old movies.

The fabrics include glittery pieces and plush black velvets, but mostly cottons. One of the fabrics is a blue calico that I used in the first quilt that I made for my older daughter when she was born.

Some of the fabric is part of a seat covering fabric collage, which used to be on the back seat of our art car, called the “Glittermobile.”

There is also a Disney fabric woven in, with a yellow background and Mickey Mouse faces here and there.

These are the things that are a personal “signature” in fabric art, and while I know what they mean (and my family does), they’re our secret when we look at what I have woven.

The rocker is comfortable, and it’s in my older daughter’s home. I’m very pleased with the results. And I hope this chair lasts a long, long time before it needs a new seat again.