Dog vs. doll

 

This is a nice antique baby doll who likely dates from the 1920's.

She has been chomped on by a dog.

Her hands and the ends of her arms are missing. Hopefully they did not cause too much indigestion to the dog?

Her feet have been munched too.

The sole of one foot is missing along with it's cardboard insert.

Some suspicious tooth marks?

Bad dog!

Fortunately her porcelain head and glass eyes are unbroken although she is missing a tooth.

From my parts stash come a pair of antique composition hands that need some repairs and alterations to fit this type of body. They once had a hook but now are on their way to getting flanges made so that they can be wired into the cloth arms.

Inside the torso is a silent voicebox.

The voicebox.

The inside of the voicebox.

The bellows is supposed to push air through a squeaker. The bellows cloth has no rips or holes but the glue along the seam has dried out. Now air goes through the seam instead of the squeaker.

Hopefully regluing the seam will be all it needs?

While the voicebox glue dries, I start on the body.

Here I have taken apart one leg to make a pattern for a new leg.

Similar patterns are made for the other body bits.

Here is one leg done and the other leg waiting to get stuffed.

The voice box works again too.

She is done.

Her joints are simple wire and washer types.

This was a common joint style and was simpler to do for the factory than an inside-the-joint cotterpin and disc style.

The string in her mouth is there only to hold her eyes stationary while she returns through the mail.

It will be snipped and removed once she gets back home.

Glass sleep eyes should always be immobilized for shipping. If they flap around while the box gets tossed around, there is a big chance they will arrive broken.

An unusual composition and cloth doll

 

These are bits of a doll that have arrived to get repaired and reconstructed.

Someone was working on the doll previously but did not finish her.

Her face has some filler roughly applied at the corners of her eyes and on her neck.

Her hair is wrapped with tissue.

Her neck needs some extra filler and some recontouring.

The neck hole in her body needs to be rebuilt too.

Her limbs are cloth with a coating of a plaster type compound and paint.

Some of the layers are missing.

I did neglect to get inbetween pictures but here she is modeling one outfit option.

The sleeve holes were unfinished and a 'fur' stole could cover the area.

But then, some leftover fabric was found in the craftsperson's stash.......so the dress gets sleeves.

A vinyl doll and a Crazy Glued eye

 

This is Christiane. A well-loved vinyl doll.

She was made by the German company "Schildkrot".

Her right eye is a bit beat up and does not work well. Most of the lashes are gone.

Her left eye is cloudy and stationary. Why?

Her owner's little brother damaged the eye so her owner fixed it with Crazy Glue. Oh oh...Crazy Glue is hard to reverse.

Keen eyes might spot another problem?

Christiane's stuffing is shredded foam. That stuff gets nasty as it ages and needs to be replaced.

Some chew marks on her feet?

Apparently the little brother is the culprit!

The eyes get extracted. These are the bits of her 'good' eye. There is some broken plastic to account for why it was not working. That could be repaired but unfortunately the crazy glued eye was unsalvageable after it extraction. Crazy glue was meant to be permanent!

So I go eyeball shopping.....

These eyes are very compact and not a typical North American doll size. But with some alterations, a domestic pair was made to work.

That is quite the expression!

Her old body is unstitched and used as a pattern for a new body.

Her old body will get folded up and placed inside the stuffing of her new body.

A new body with no more disintegrating foam stuffing. This one has polyester stuffing.

A 19th century paper mache doll

 

This little doll needs several areas addressed.

She has a paper mache head on a cloth body. Her arms are paper mache and her lower legs are cloth.

She is missing the tip of her nose and her paint is quite worn.

There are cracks on her shoulder plate but they are superficial.

She is missing both hands.

Her lower legs are made of green fabric that is fragile and shredding....it is attached to oilcloth which was fashioned to look like boots. They even had leather soles.

Hand transplants.

These hands were salvaged from some parts that were made from a very similar material. They still need some paint to blend in.

Some of the dings get disguised on the head.

Then the lower legs get dismantled.

To address the one oilcloth boot that has missing sections, I glue the shreds to a piece of cotton.

Then I paint in the missing sections.

Hand transplants done. New calves and reconstructed boots/feet.

Her wool dress is shredding but original to her.

A Cissy doll gets a maintenance visit

 

This is a Madame Alexander Cissy doll.

She has arrived to address some typical vintage plastic doll problems.

Her facial paint is in very nice condition.

She even still has all her eyelashes.

Cissy dolls are quite prone to having missing eyelashes.

Many Cissys had earrings that were glued in. The glue yellows with age and looks unsightly if the earrings goes missing.

Cissy dolls and similar vintage plastic dolls are prone to splits along their seam lines And cracking of the plastic at pressure points.

Plastic is not an inert substance that lasts forever. It deteriorates with time. These splits and cracks are all symptoms of plastic degeneration. 

This Cissy has several splits here and there but they are fairly minor.

This is....well....it is a crotch split.

And a leg split.

A foot split.

Splits at the tops of each hip.

And a wee little crack under her chin.

The chin crack gets epoxied and then diguised with a wee bit of paint.

The same for that crotch split.

It is epoxied (glued) and painted. Being a seam line, it is more visible.

Ditto for the leg split.