Hip reconstruction

 

This doll is a lovely large doll by Armand Marseille. She has arrived to get fixed and restrung. 

What needs fixing?

One thigh section is missing the top part. The ball is gone from the ball and socket joint.

How do you reconstruct that? The thighs are made of cardboard.

 

A well loved Puffalumps doll

 

This is 'Dolly'. A well loved Puffalumps doll. She has arrived for a cleaning and a replumping.

She needs a good long soak in the tub. Maybe a new hairdo?

For these type of cleaning jobs I remove the stuffing so I can clean it separately and replump it. Polyester stuffing can be washed and replumped quite nicely.

When I unstuff Dolly, I find she has a squeaker inside.

This squeaker no longer makes a noise. The reed is mangled and looks suspiciously chewed upon.

Fortunately I can replace this squeaker's reed with one harvested from a new dog chew toy.

After several long soaks in the tub, Dolly is much cleaner. Her original fabric colours are more evident now.

After getting stuffed with her cleaned and replumped stuffing and getting her now-working squeaker installed, she gets a comb out and curling of her hair.

She is ready to go home.

Wrecked Schoenhut eyes

 

This is a Schoenhut doll as he was found by his owner. He has obviously had some work done. Why he is white is anyone's guess.

His owner stripped the white paint off and found this. He then got sent to me. He looks like a model 300 or 403 but those eyes look weird.

After a bit of excavation, which consists of removing a variety of fillers that should not be there, I find an eye bulging out. This is not right. Schoenhut made intaglio eyes and smooth eyes. Intaglio eyes are carved into the head. Flat eyes are flat. Nothing should be bulging out here.

A bit more excavation and out pops a small piece of wood that someone had glued into the eye area.

Here is a clearer view of the other eye area just before I popped out its wooden 'eye'.

This poor guy once had intaglio eyes but, during whatever misfortunes he suffered, his eye structure got completely wrecked.

Fortunately his eyes can be rebuilt.

Here his left eye is starting to look as it should thanks to some epoxy clay.

Here he is after some more eye surgery and a few other contour tweaks to his face.

Now he is starting to get some paint applied.

Paint job done.

He looks even better with a wig.

An elephant's trunk rehabilitation

 

This is an old toy elephant who has a droopy trunk. He is made of mohair that has become quite sparse. The stuffing in his trunk has shifted over the years and his owner does not like its droopy look.

Under his trunk is a seam. The seam has a gap that looks as if someone has opened it up before. Some sawdust or wood chips are peeking out from the gap. This is the natural place to access his trunk to err.....make it more erect.

The seam is easy to open up as the old thread is suffering from a bit of dry rot and it pops open easily. I find a variety of stuffing in the area.....kapok, sawdust and wood wool. Mostly wood wool. That is most likely what his original stuffing was. It will fill out his trunk and hold it more erect without putting undue stress on his aged mohair and the remaining old thread in the seams. Wood wool is usually called excelsior in North America.

Here I am gently stuffing some wood wool into his trunk, one or two strands at a time until I think he has enough to fill out the trunk but not too much as to stress his old fabric and thread. Then I sew up the opened seam.

It works!

He is a happier elephant now.

Let's count paint layers again.

 We are now counting how many paint layers go on a Schoenhut doll during a restoration.

I sometimes wonder why it takes me so long to do a restoration. I have always assumed that I am slow or, that I get distracted by another project etc. But sometimes, mid restoration in the painting phase, I start wondering how many coats of paint I actually put on. So, I decided to count them!

Here is my test case. A nice model 308 Schoenhut doll. Before I start counting the layers of paint I put on I have to take off all the lingering repaint and the filler from her previous restorations. Then I have to stabilize her remaining original paint and put new filler into the areas where the original paint has gone missing.

Here she is after several days getting all that done. She is ready for paint. I try to keep my repainted areas confined to the filled areas so that as much as possible of her original paint is left exposed. The process is simple. Paint a layer of paint, let it dry at least a day, sand the dried paint and then apply another coat.

Here she is after 5 coats of paint. Sometimes I can sneak 2 coats in one day with no sanding in between but still, 5 coats often takes 4-5 days to put on.

Here she is after 10 coats. The filled areas are starting to fade away put are still visible.

Here she is after 15 coats of paint. I have also been able to get in a few touchups to her eyes. She is getting there!

After a few more coats to her skin to tweak her colour and of course all her facial features and a bit of blush, I declare her done.

Final count for just the skin tone layers.....19

This is one of the easier restorations as she did not need many contour corrections. Those will totally erase any paint I have applied and so the layers all have to start again.

A slow process!

How many paint layers can you count?

 Sometimes, during the 100+ years of an antique doll's existence, they get multiple repairs and/or multiple paint jobs. This Schoenhut boy has met many people wielding a paintbrush during his life!

I cannot count how many layers are on him but there are many! And, they are all failing. 

This model has nice carved hair but the carved details are smothered by the multiple layers of thick paint.

The failure of the paint layers is pretty impressive!

Unfortunately for me the paint layers are not removable with acetone so he will be a slow excavation using scrapers and tiny files. All the failing paint needs to come off.

Here he is with the repaint layers removed. Not much factory paint left!

He has developed some warped facial features over the years. 

After a few contour tweaks with epoxy clay he is starting to get flesh tone paint applied. This helps show where more contour tweaks are needed.

Here he is midway through the painting process. I have long lost count of how mamy layers  are going back on!

Mysterious layer on a Schoenhut doll

This doll has arrived so she can be improved upon.

She has had a total repaint of her head.

 

The repaint layer comes off easily enough but underneath is a white layer. I have never met this product on a Schoenhut doll. I usually remove every non-original layer on these dolls as they tend to obscure the carved contours. But, this white stuff is not coming off no matter what solvent I try.

Here she is minus all the paint and a bit of epoxy putty that had been put around her mouth.

This white layer is hard, smooth and stuck securely to the underlying wood. It seems to have been sprayed on as it has conformed to the underlying wood contours pretty well. 

 

I have had a few suggestions what this white is. Plaster? No......plaster has a different feel and would come off with minimal difficulty. Epoxy putty such as Miliput? No......there is no way you can apply epoxy putty into all the contours of a head like this so smoothly. Also epoxy putty will soften with acetone and this white stuff did nothing with acetone.

My best current guess is that this is a spray on gesso.

Whatever it is, it will not come off easily and I do not want to damage the underlying wood. The stuff has left her carved features visible so I decide it shall remain on. I will do a wee bit of recontouring around her eyes and mouth and then start the usual repainting process.

Here she is during the contour fixing. 

Now she is starting the multiple paint layers. She looks a little shell shocked at this point!

This is her final look.

              

Bernadette, the composition doll.

This is Bernadette, a family doll who has had much loving! She ha s arrived to fix her eyes and get beautified.

There is something very wrong with that right eye. Those eyebrows could use some work too!

After the usual decapitation I can extract her eyes. They are constructed by glueing celluloid caps onto wood globes. The right eye cap had come loose and had rotated backwards. An inventive person had drawn a replacement eye onto the bare wood globe. This makes an easy fix as I can just reglue the cap and re-insert the eyes.

Now that her eyes are done, I can contemplate what to do with her very sparse mohair wig. There is not enough left to style so one option is a bonnet.

Another option is a full new wig. Bernadette is a big doll. Large mohair wigs are hard to find and expensive. Synthetic wigs are cheaper but less appropriate for her age.

Yet another option is hair extensions. 

Her owners are consulted and extensions are decided on. Mohair can be obtained in wefts and sewn into her existing wig. That is what she gets.

 

She goes home like this.