Tuesday, February 20, 2018

A miniature BJD gets restrung

Thanks a lot Merle for giving me this challenge ;-)

Well here we have the smallest doll I have ever been asked to restring.
It is a modern artist's BJD (Ball Jointed Doll). The elastic has disintegrated and it is in pieces.
But there are no hooks in the limbs to attach new elastic to....argh.

The doll's original elastic seemed to have been installed before the knee and elbow parts were glued in. So, I could either break apart the lower limbs and install new elastic the same way it was originally or I could install new stringing hooks in the lower limbs.





I opt for new stringing hooks. The elastic I install will disintegrate with time and some day this doll will need restringing again.
Stringing hooks will make future elastic replacement easier.


Here is the body showing a stringing hook installed in one lower leg. And one of the S hooks I made out of sewing pins.
2 hooks slipped into the lower limbs easily but the other two were trickier. In maneuvering the hooks in, the knee/elbow parts separated from the lower limb and had to be re-glued with the hook in place.

Note the measuring tape and the size of all these pieces.....my eyes hurt now!






 I have used 3 loops of elastic. One goes from arm to arm. The other 2 run from the lower legs up through the torso and are held inside the head by the big S hook.
The 2 sides of the head now snap on to the lower part. The silver dots are strong magnets that hils the head together....a very cool system!











All back together now.

And dressed.

This is "Lena"......created by doll artist Charles Grimberg-Stephan cerca 2008-2009.