Re-stringing an antique ball-jointed doll.

This is a Gebruder Heubach doll whose head has come off during shipping.

The head is not damaged....why did it come off?

The head was attached by a wire gizmo that looks homemade. The prongs on this gizmo are too short and slip out of the head too easily.
She needs a new stringing attachment for her head that will not let her head come off so easily.

Another issue with this body is that there are no stringing hooks anywhere.
This is not an uncommon finding in old dolls. The original makers did not think about future elastic replacement when they put together some bodies.

Here is what the person who restrung the doll previously did.
The new elastic was tied to the original elastic remnants.

I could do the same and tie new elastic to the original but the original is fragile and may not stand up to being messed with again.
Also, the new elastic I install will disintegrate with time (as all elastic does) and someday this doll will have to be restrung yet again.

So I am going to install stringing hooks in the least invasive way possible.

First, I remove as much of the old elastic as possible so I can install new hooks into the knee and elbow areas.

Sometimes when you do this you see a horizontal nail down inside the limb. This nail was put through the factory elastic to hold it inside the leg when the doll was originally constructed.
If you find a nail like that you can sometimes just maneuver a new hook to catch on to the nail.

But, in this case, there are no nails reachable with a new hook inside these legs or arms.

So, on to the next plan...
Using the smallest drill bit possible in a twist drill, a hole gets drilled though one side of each lower limb.

The drill hole goes through the center of the limb and a bit into the other side.
Now I have horizontal wires to attach hooks to.

Now all the lower limbs have stringing hooks. The small drill holes will get filled and painted to match the finish of the limbs. The holes will be invisible when done.

Here is her old head hook on the left....the one that slipped out of her head way too easily.
I am replacing it with a 'screwgle'....seen on the right. It will provide a more secure attachment. And, since I am not fond of wire on bisque, a felt circle will go inside the head between the wire and the bisque.

All back together :-)