Barbie’s Basement Jewellery

Toronto designers Robin Woodward and Ange Beever have created an exciting line of pop accessories for modern life and those who live it with humour and flair. Barbie’s Basement Jewellery celebrates individual identity and popular culture in a handmade, accessible, wearable form.
The threat of a layoff from the full-time switchboard job Robin held for several years prompted a friend to ask the question, “what would you do if you could get paid for anything?” When the answer was “make jewellery”, Robin took action to make her hobby pay the bills. She did a couple of small craft shows, selling beaded necklaces etc., before hitting on the idea of rings with text and glitter embedded in them. Another couple of small shows and a self-employment course later, Barbie’s Basement Jewellery became a real company.
The name Barbie’s Basement Jewellery is meant to signify the pop, girly side of Robin’s personality and creativity, as well as hinting at slightly darker, more grown-up themes that lie beneath the sparkly surface. The work of pop artist Keith Haring has long been a source of inspiration, along with cult movies (John Waters’ films in particular), pinup art, The Simpsons, Madonna and Hello Kitty. Robin (aka President Glitterwhore) pushed her GlitterPop text idea further by developing a layering process that makes tiny images the focal point of the jewellery. These Image Collections have become the spine of BBJ, and have opened a treasure of design possibilities and new challenges.
A misfortune just before the holidays of 2000 changed the course of BBJ. While Robin was preparing for her first One Of A Kind show, her best friend (and future wife) Ange was working late one night installing decorations in a mall and suffered a serious fall. During her long recovery from ankle surgery, Ange decided that she preferred working on little accessories to big things that hang high in malls. Always supportive of Robin’s efforts in business, Ange became an integrated part of the company as production manager (or VP Gluesniffer) in 2001. Ange’s background in display and visual art (BFA, York ‘96) has been a valuable addition to Robin’s self-taught design skills, and together they’ve grown BBJ from a D.I.Y. home-based startup to a thriving wholesale line with its own production and design studio in Toronto’s funky South Riverdale. Thousands of playful-to-provocative BBJ rings, cufflinks, magnets, belt buckles and more have been created in under five years.