A large bisque headed doll repair

 

This is a large German bisque headed doll who is a family heirloom. She has arrived to make her look less scary.

Apparently the white colour of her eyes when she was supposed to be 'sleeping' was unnerving to the family member who handed me the doll :-)

That is just some missing eyelids.....but she has scarier issues than that to me.

She has some serious cracks. Cracks in the front...

...and cracks in the back.

Even a few chips and missing chunks of bisque.

This head looks to be almost completely broken in two. What is holding it together?

Inside the head I find someone has reset the sleep eyes with gray epoxy clay and then added hot glue gun glue to that for extra measure.

Another view.

These compounds are solid and trying to remove them will be hazardous to the eye rocker, so the cracks need to be consolidated from the outside.

But first, this very dirty head needs a good scrub and all the old glue from the wig needs to come off.

After a cleaning the cracks get consolidated. That gets done by painting a thinned adhesive along the cracks that can seep in and harden.

Next the cracks will get filled a bit.

A wig, eyelashes/eyelids and some age appropriate clothes help her look less scary.