Lamby-the-lamb vs. dog

This is 'Lamby'.
He had an encounter with a dog who felt the need to chew on something. That something was Lamby.

Lamby's facial seam has ripped.
He has some bald spots....but are those dog related? They could be from years of loving too.

Lamby's plastic nose is gnawed on and part of the fur fabric holding it is missing..
I think we can blame the dog for that.

So, Lamby gets un-stuffed and has a nice soak in Biz and Woolite.
Then his face gets removed and dismantled.
With the amount of damage on two of the pieces, he will get the best results with a whole new face.

A pattern gets made from the damaged pieces, a fur donor with similar fur is selected, and Lamby's new face is on it's way.

Here is Lamby ready to go home.
New face, new nose, cleaned and re-fluffed.

Curious George gets refreshed

This is Curious George.
He has arrived to get re-stuffed and refreshed.

George has been well loved and now has a few holes.
This hole is leaking stuffing.

Generally I don't like replacing stuffing as most vintage stuffing can be cleaned, re-fluffed and re-used.
But not George's stuffing.

This is vintage shredded foam stuffing.
Foam does not age well. It can be latex foam or polyurethane foam or a blend, but all foams soften and deteriorate with time.
George's type of foam has started to crumble into powder.

Note to self......the next un-stuffing of vintage foam gets done outside! My vacuum got a huge workout after George got un-stuffed.

George has now had a nice soak in Biz and Woolite and his fur is quite refreshed.
Next he gets stuffed with polyester fiberfill stuffing.
You can also see a couple pieces of fur that have been selected for his fur grafts.

One of George's holes before a fur graft.

The same area after a fur graft.

Cleaned, restuffed and patched.
George is ready to go home.

Whitey-the-bear vs. dog

There is a recurrent theme in the doll and toy repair field?
That would be patients who have arrived having suffered a mauling by the family dog!

This is Whitey.

He got seized upon by a canine and has significant facial injuries.
He is missing an eye. His remaining eye is broken. A significant amount of his fur fabric is missing. He is going to need fur grafts to repair this damage.

The best way to address extensive injuries like Whitey's is to work from the inside and so his head comes off.

Then his head starts getting dismantled..
In the left lower corner is a piece of fur that will be used for fur grafts.

Now we have Whitey's head pieces ready to put back together.
His whole left face has been replaced with the donor fur. His head gusset piece has been patched with what was left of his left face.

Pieced back together and ready to go back on his body.......

Dimples-the-doll vs. dog

This is 'Dimples. A composition doll who had a bad encounter with a dog.
She is missing half an arm and parts of both legs.

She has had work done before.
Her head and arms have been repainted. Her cloth body, stuffing and legs are new. I am not even sure her arms are original to her....they look rather small.

Here you can see the difference between old and new composition. The arm dates from the 1930's or so and has the typical look inside of pressed sawdust/woodchips.
The leg is modern composition. Modern composition has a very homogeneous texture and looks grey....it does not look like a wood product.

Dimples has some eyelashes that have come out too.....

Seeing as Dimples has very few original body parts, might a body transplant be her best option?
Here she is modelling a cloth body with composition limbs that is of the same vintage as her head. The limbs need repainting and the cloth needs refreshing but this body will suit her very nicely once it gets 'refreshed'.

Whoever restored Dimples before put her presumably original voicebox inside the new cloth body. It no longer makes sounds but maybe I can fix that.....

Dimples is now modeling her new eyelashes.
She has had some dental work too as her teeth and tongue were loose.

It also appears Dimples has been photo-bombed by a curious donkey?

It has been a long haul but finally Dimples' renovated limbs are ready.
Her limbs needed stripping, priming , painting and sealing......multiple layers, many of which are weather dependent if you do not own a workshop with a good ventilation system.

This is all of her parts that will get assembled shortly.

Well, here is Dimples with her 'new' body.
She has antique limbs repainted to match her head.
Her cloth body has been refreshed to fit her 'new' limbs. Her stuffing is the same stuffing she arrived with. And, now her crier works.

At least she looks like a doll that has not been dog-mauled.
She will return home like this.

Deja vu....more eyes! And magic skin!

This box of bits has just arrived.

The big head needs it's eye fixed.
Interestingly it is the identical head to the one who just got eye transplants last week!
But, I don't know of any potential eye donors currently so I will have to actually fix the eye.

The smaller head has a neck plug crusted with gooey and hardened rubber. It once had a magic skin body that disintegrated long ago. Her arms were vinyl attached to the magic skin so they survived.
She needs a new body.

First the baby....out comes the eye.
The pivoting piece that contains the iris has come out of it's pivot rests.
The outer flesh coloured shell is missing chunks. That partof the shell is made of plastic.

Here is the eyeball deconstructed.

Here is the eye with the plastic part rebuilt with epoxy and some paint to freshen things up.

Back goes the eye........

Then back to the smaller head....
It was fortunate I happened to have a spare magic skin body that was sturdy......so she goes home like this......

Total composition restoration

Here we have a composition baby doll from the 1930's or early '40's.
She has arrived for a restoration.
On first glace she doesn't look too bad?

But, you can see cracking and lifting of the paint and skim composition layers around the face.

A common problem in composition dolls is the head seam that runs from ear to ear. These seams were usually finished with plaster which is extremely susceptible to moisture and  is often the first area to show damage.

Missing fingers and more cracking paint/compo on the limbs.

Some progress.
The eyes and teeth are removed and much of the lifted paint/compo layers are off.

The next steps involve sanding and spray primers.......outside jobs. And outside weather has not been nice for a long time!

So, while I wait for decent weather......I fix fingers.

Finally.
The weather is cooperating so I can sand outside without getting frostbite.
The doll is now ready for primer/filler. It will get 3 coats with sanding in between each coat before paint is applied.

After multiple layers of primer, the doll gets into the paint booth.

In the final stretches now...... a few facial features to add still......

Done!

Vintage doll eye troubles

This is a rather large vinyl doll from the 1950's or early '60s.
She has arrived to get her eye issues addressed.

Both eyes are pushed in and are quite nasty looking.

So, the usual....off with the head and extract the eye bits out of their sockets.

These type of eyes are sometimes called canister eyes. The eyeballs pivot inside a round canister.
Unfortunately the front pieces of these eyes were made with plastic (most were metal). The plastic front bits are broken on each eye. The one on the right is likely repairable bit the other one.....oh dear!

Here are both eyes taken apart.
There is rust. There is serious grunge. There is an ancient piece of paper that had been stuffed into the eye on the left! Why? Maybe because that eye is missing the weight that made it able to open and close? The weight has broken off and is missing. Maybe someone stuffed paper in to 'help'?


It is time to look for an eye donor perhaps.
The original eyes can be repaired with difficulty but a better result will be had with an eye donor.

And so, with luck, a potential donor is found.
She is of the same vintage and her eyes look great.
She is suffering from an incurable disease so she is an ideal donor.

Her disease?
You see that white powdery coating on her vinyl? That is not dust or mold. That is leaching plasticizer.  Her vinyl is degenerating.
Some doll folks call this 'plastic doll disease'. But it is not a disease. It is a common, irreversible aging problem of plastics. There are other ways plastic ages.....stickiness, weird smells, colour changes......this particular vinyl is doing the powdery coating style of degenerating.

Hopefully her eyes will be salvageable.

Here are her extracted eyes near the bits from the baby doll.
Everything seems to be the same size so I think this will work!
I will give the 'new' eyes a deep cleaning than then try them out.

It works!
The eye transplant was successful.

She got a bit of freshening up of her mouth paint too.