A painted bisque doll gets repairs

This doll has arrived to be restrung and to get some repairs.

Her first obvious issue is that she is missing her stringing hook from her right leg. Someone has drilled holes in the leg to tie it back on her body.

Her head is 'painted bisque'. This differs from traditional bisque in that the colour was not fired on.

You can see where the paint has been pulled off the bisque by the wig glue.

Her wig didn't look too bad from the front but the back looks a little deranged.

A jumble of old elastic and stuff was rattling around in her body. That is the missing hook from the right hip in there!

Her body is cardboard covered with a gesso and then painted. Here one foot is crumbling and there are weird stains running up the leg.

Her posterior is missing quite a bit of the gesso. This doll might have encountered some liquid at some point in her life? Traditional gesso does not tolerate getting moist.

To start, the bit with the hook that had fallen out is epoxied back into the leg and the crumbling foot bits get glued back together.

Once that all dries, the exposed bits of carboard and the deteriorated areas of gesso get painted with a sealer. 

Here are the trouble spots after filling with epoxy putty.

Next they will get a coat of sealer and then some paint.

Well, I changed my mind on the wig. I said it didn't look too bad at the front?

But then I started working on it. 

It is one matted mess of mohair!

But, a nice weather day, a comfy chair on the deck and some tools and patience.....the wig gets slowly detangled. And I get to chastise the squirrels who are raiding the bird feeders as I pick apart mohair clumps :-)

Here is my favorite wig detangling tool.

This might not look like progress but it is!

More progress....

In the final stages now.

The finish in the repaired areas is getting tweaked before her reassembly.

Under all the clothes she came with was this.

This is her original chemise.

She was sold as an 'Eaton's Beauty' doll in the late 1930's. Her red banner once said 'Eaton's Beuty' and she likely had white oilcloth shoes.

Here she is with all of her travelling clothes back on.