German bisque head refreshing and restringing

 

This little doll needs to be put back together.

Some previous DIY work involved stringing her with wire?

The previous work included glueing back one knee socket at the wrong rotation.

There are also no hooks in the lower legs. This style of stringing was a cheap/fast way for the factory to make the doll but made no allowances for future restringing. I will install hooks so that when the elastic I use fails many years down the road, the next doll doctor will have an easier job.

This is another feature of a cheap factory assembly. Elastic was glued into the lower legs and then that was pulled up by wires that hooked over the back of the head. I will make this head mount easier for future doll docs by switching it to a neck plug and hook.

Disassembled.

The wig is quite the matted mess of mohair. But it is salvageable with some time spent combing it out. The best way to comb out mohair is with a single needle. A comb will pull out too much mohair.

After the comb out.

Straws work well as curlers for small doll wigs.

Back together.

And dressed.

An unusual 1950's walking doll

 

This hard plastic walking doll was made in the 1950's. She suffers from degeneration of her plastic and the most noticable symptom is that her right hand has crumbled and fallen off.

What is unusual about her is that she was constructed to walk beside a carriage. The plastic around the bits that connect her to the carriage has warped and split.

The metal bar comes from the carriage.

The doll's plastic body has warped enough that the connecting rods no longer align.

This is an ad from 1956 showing an identical doll.

After realigning the connection points, the crack is filled and everything is recontoured with epoxy putty. Then the repair is diguised with a bit of paint.

Everything fits!

Which means she can get hooked up to her carriage again. The clothes are her original ones.

A wee little composition doll

 This little doll needs help!

Perhaps she had some moisture damage?

Her paint is shot. Fortunately her composition base looks to be in good shape.

Here she is part way through her restoration.

All the chipped and peeling paint has been removed. Her limbs have started the filling and priming process.

Done.

Composition doll full restoration

 

This doll is to have a full restoration.

She has had repairs in the past including rebuilding of her feet, repainting of the body and even a new head!

Her head is marked 'RELIABLE' and her body is marked 'PULLAN'.

The head and body colour do not match. The face colour looks original but the pinker body colour may not be. Her hair has had some extra dark paint applied.

If you look at her body in this picture, you can see the paint/gesso is lumpy and pitted. To make her look her best all the chipped and aged layers need to come off or get sanded smooth. The skin tone paint and the white gesso underneath tested stronly for lead. So, another outdoor job with mask on!

Many days later she can finally start the rebuilding and resurfacing process. The white layer under the paint on the body was particularily tenacious!

While her body gets worked on her eyes get a cleaning and new eyelashes.

Getting there.......