Arabelle.....a full composition restoration

Arabelle has traveled from Nova Scotia to get restored.
She arrived already beheaded :-)

 The eyes are the first thing you notice. The irises have shattered and the sclera have yellowed.

She has a lot of crazing paint.
Several areas of her outer skim composition layers are lifting away from the base composition. It may be hard to tell this from the picture, but if you press a fingernail along the side of the nose where that layer is lifting....it cracks and falls off.

Here you can see where some of the lifted skim coat has already fallen off revealing the base composition underneath.

Here is another problem typical of these dolls.
In the factory, the doll was often formed in different pieces in a mold or press. The pieces were glued together and the ridges smoothed over with plaster. Unfortunately plaster is very susceptible to moisture and the plastered seams are the first to crack.
All of the loose and lifted material must be removed to make a stable smooth base for paint.

So we start with the usual....unstuffing the body and removing the limbs to get worked on.
Another silent voice box. This one is quite petite for such a large doll but hopefully it can be made to squawk again.

Out come the eyes.
The main eyeball is metal with inset plastic irises. The shattered irises have to get reamed out and new ones glued in. The yellowed sclera will get a coating of paint so she does not keep that jaundiced look.












Another doll stalled by nasty weather. Acetone is used to remove the cracking paint and that needs good ventilation....ie. outdoors. 4C and raining yet again today!

So some nice weather finally. I can use some stinky stuff outside without getting frostbite...
But first I drill out the irises. That is a messy job with plastic bits flying so it is designated to the outdoors too.

Hmmm...first iris out to find a metal post in the middle. That is a new finding for me. Every doll seem to have a surprise somewhere.

It may not look like progress but it is.
About half of Arabelle's skim composition was cracked and/or lifting off of the base compo.
Removing the unstable layers and sanding the rest down to get a smooth surface is the most time consuming part of this type of restoration.
Happily, Arabelle's base composition is in great shape so she does not need features re-built.

This is one leg showing the seam that was glued and plastered during manufacturing.

Here we have the eyes after some fresh paint and new irises.
Eyelashes are still to come....they get inserted tuft by tuft into the slots you can see above the irises.

Woot woot....eyelashes are done.

Arabelle (and a friend) are getting many layers of skin-tone paint applied now.

Arrabelle's body is done. The cryer works again and the old ripped cloth has been replaced.
It seems to be patiently waiting for hair and makeup to be completed?
Arrabelle had to go through hair painting twice....the first hairdo did not quite look right!

The hair and makeup departments have finally completed their work and the eyes have been re-inserted.
Last thing is to re-attach the head.

Head attached....ready to go home.....