An Artist's Profile: Priyah Bhagat

Mixed media doll artist, Priyah Bhagat

The 4th in the When Did You Fall in Love With Black Dolls? series, mixed media doll artist Priyah Bhagat shares her doll maker's profile with the Virtual Black Doll Museum. Follow the link to read the full interview.

https://virtualblackdollmuseum.com/2026/11/07/an-artists-profile-priyah-bhagat/ 

Call for Submissions: If you are a doll collector or doll artist who chiefly collects or makes Black dolls and would like your profile included in this monthly series, please contact the curator at virtualblackdollmuseum@gmail.com for participation details.

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All photos and text are copyrighted and may not be used elsewhere without the author's permission.

©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________

Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published. To contact me directly, use the About page link, which is also visible in Web View mode; find and use the email link.

Visit and follow DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum (VBDM) for over 1000 curated installations of antique, vintage, modern, and one-of-a-kind Black dolls, and now featuring profiles of Black-doll collectors, artists, and other Black-doll contributors. 

Contact the curator through the VBDM contact page to have your Black-doll collector or artist profile featured on the museum website for up to 30 days.

Kelly/Chelsea and Friends

This is my most recent Chelsea from the Barbie Family & Friends Club Chelsea series. The box has a copyright year of 2024.

After my most recent Chelsea purchase from Marshall's for $3.99 as an inexpensive doll fix, I decided to dedicate this post to my Kelly/Chelsea and Friends collection.

The 1990s Kellys were 4 to 4-1/2 inches tall. The dolls grew taller in stages from the mid-to-late 2000s, ranging from 5 to 5-1/2 inches. The name changed from Kelly to Chelsea in 2010, and a new head sculpt debuted in 2011. Since 2011, more than one head sculpt has been used. Personally, I prefer the original sculpt, but the ©2021 sculpt used for Tamika (seen toward the end of this post) is pretty.

An unknown ©1994 jointed-knee Kelly can sit comfortably or stand.

The above unknown Kelly was a late-1990s gift. The person who gave her to me decorated a wreath with her. I don't know if the silver dress or purple tights are the original clothes, but they fit her to a T.  Interestingly, she has jointed knees and is my 1st jointed-knee Kelly. At some point, I removed the silver dress and tights and made her a dress using multiple small ponytail holders. Why I did this, I have no clue.

Jointed-knee Kelly now wears a dress made from small ponytail holders.

During the early phases of collecting, I often purchased Barbie's littlest sister, Kelly, or a friend here and there when shopping at Toys R Us and other toy retailers. In 2010, however, Kelly and Friends became a concentrated focus in my online doll buying. Unless otherwise indicated, most of the following dolls were online purchases after the desire for more Kellys hit. The dolls are listed in copyright order rather than in purchase or receipt order.

1997 Eatin' Fun Kelly was a recent gift. She came with the high chair and all shown accessories.

This is 1998 Cowgirl Friend of Kelly Deidre; I added the hat.

A pre-2010 purchase, these dolls are featured in my 2nd book, Black Dolls: A Comprehensive Guide to Celebrating and Experiencing the Passion, L-R: 1999 Dress-Up Deidre, 2004 Holiday Angel Deidre, 1999 Lemonade Stand Tamika, 2002 Deidre (dressed as a Barnum's Animals Crackers lion)

This 1999 Kelly fashion was a gift. I am considering dressing jointed-knee Kelly in this.

A pre-2010 purchase, these dolls are also featured in my 2nd book, Black Dolls: A Comprehensive Guide to Celebrating and Experiencing the Passion, L-R: 1999 Kwanzaa Keeya, 2001 Christmas Tree Deidre, 2001 Peppermint Kelly, 2005 Holiday Party Keeya, and 2004 Princess and the Pauper Kelly.

Kelly is part of the ©2000 Barbie Singing Sisters boxed set. The dolls stand on wreath-decorated steps. In unison, as a duet, or solo, they sing Deck the Halls when the base is in the on position and pressed to activate.

Barbie in the Nutcracker, a special collector/holiday line, was one of the first Kelly collections I purchased. I have used these dolls as ornaments and to decorate a doll's dress for Christmas.

2001 Barbie in the Nutcracker special collector holiday dolls decorate a larger doll's Christmas dress as illustrated here and in the next photo.

My painted and dyed Kissy wears a red velvet Christmas dress decorated with Nutcracker dolls: Tommy as the Nutcracker, Peppermint Girl Kelly, and Gingerbread Man Tommy.

2001 Kelly Holiday Series dolls: Angel, Elf, and Snowman were sold as a set.

©2003 Crayola Kelly wears an orange Crayola costume and holds an orange Crayola.

This is ©2014 Ballerina Chelsea. The top of her leotard is molded on.

From left to right are 2018 Chelsea, 2017 friend of Chelsea boy, and 2020 "Love" Chelsea.

This adorable 2020 Chelsea wears a love-themed dress, has a lovely deep complexion, and two Afro puffs.

Received as a gift, this ©2023 jointed-knee Chelsea includes a wheelchair and a ramp. 

The next two photos of the newest Chelsea were taken after I removed her from the box. 

5-3/8 inch all-vinyl Chelsea has dark brown rooted hair, a white rubber headband, painted brown eyes, an open-mouth smile, and wears a light-blue rainbow, fruit, and heart-print dress with dark pink vinyl sandals.

Upon arrival, Chelsea's long dark-brown hair was secured with a rubber band, which has been removed.

2021 Tamika (the cutest of the bunch, in my opinion), 2022 Chelsea (seen previously), and my most recently acquired 2024 Chelsea were photographed together.

__________

All photos and text are copyrighted and may not be used elsewhere without the author's permission.

©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________

Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published. To contact me directly, use the About page link, which is also visible in Web View mode; find and use the email link.

Visit and follow DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum (VBDM) for over 1000 curated installations of antique, vintage, modern, and one-of-a-kind Black dolls, and now featuring profiles of Black-doll collectors, artists, and other Black-doll contributors. 

Contact the curator through the VBDM contact page to have your Black-doll collector or artist profile featured on the museum website for up to 30 days.

Dyed, Colored, and Repainted 35th Anniversary Barbie

A photo of Mattel's 35th Anniversary Barbie, released in 1993 or 1994, was taken before I dyed and colored the doll in 2017.

In the "Dyeing to be Black" 6-part series published in March 2017, I dyed and colored a 35th Anniversary brunette Barbie. The doll's hard plastic torso did not fully absorb the Jacquard iDye Poly brown dye, so I colored the torso with a colored pencil to match the doll's dyed vinyl head and limb color.

This photo illustrates the final result of the 2017 dyeing and coloring project.

Some 9-1/2 years later, after a recent mishap in the doll room caused several wall-stacked boxed dolls (mostly Barbies) to fall, with my dyed 35th Anniversary Barbie being one of the fallen, I discovered that the dyed head and limbs had faded to a much lighter brown, actually beige while the colored torso remained cocoa brown. So, I had to remedy this by painting the torso to match the limbs.

I took this photo in September 2026 after I discovered the doll's dyed head and extremities had faded.

I removed the doll from the box, removed the wrist tag, and took this photo. 

After undressing Barbie, the next three photos were taken:

I pulled her bangs away from her face and wrapped her ponytail into a bun before painting. Rubber bands held the bangs and ponytail in place. 

After rinsing the torso with water to remove as much of the colored pencil as possible, I took this close-up photo and the next full-view photo.

The following two photos were taken after painting Barbie with one layer of Apple Barrel Territorial Beige paint and placing her in an empty coffee mug to air-dry.

The paint closely matches the head and extremities. For full coverage, I applied several more coats.

The following photos were taken after the final coat of paint dried and before I attempted to seal with Mr. Super Clear Matte Finishing Spray. 

Final coat of paint, photo 1

Final coat of paint, photo 2

Sealing:

I could only seal the front of the torso before I ran out of Mr. Super Clear Matte Finishing Spray. After the front dried, the next day I used FolkArt water-based varnish satin finish. I prefer Mr. Super Clear because the finish isn't shiny. The FolkArt product adds a slight sheen.

The following two photos were taken after the sealant dried.

 

I redressed her, took a complexion comparison photo, and returned Barbie to the box as illustrated in the last three photos.

Reattached to the box liner

The 35th Anniversary Barbie's complexion falls between the complexions of redressed Barbie Fashionista 206 and the playline 60th Anniversary Barbie.

And here she is... now a near even color.

Working on this doll off and on, this project took about two weeks to complete. 

__________

All photos and text are copyrighted and may not be used elsewhere without the author's permission.

©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________

Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published. To contact me directly, use the About page link, which is also visible in Web View mode; find and use the email link.

Visit and follow DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum (VBDM) for over 1000 curated installations of antique, vintage, modern, and one-of-a-kind Black dolls, and now featuring profiles of Black-doll collectors, artists, and other Black-doll contributors. 

Contact the curator through the VBDM contact page to have your Black-doll collector or artist profile featured on the museum website for up to 30 days.