A Japanese gofun doll

 

This doll has arrived for repairs.

She is a Japanese doll from maybe the 1930's.

Her head was wrapped separately from her body as the connection had broken.

Her nose needs fixing.

This doll was finished with 'gofun'. That is a ground up oyster shell product.

There are issues with the doll's limbs.

All the limbs have silk upper parts stuffed with wood wool. The silk is shredding.

Silk is not available locally so I have found the next best fabric to use. This is a rayon fabric that I will use to wrap the shredding silk parts. I dyed the rayon to turn it from the bright white into a more subdued and antique looking colour.

Here are her legs wrapped in rayon.

No more wood wool leaks.

Her arms get a similar treatment.

Her nose is filled and the repaired area is getting the colour tweaked to blend in with her original surfaces.

After a bit of reseach, I find out that the head is connected very simply. It is mounted on a stick that gets pushed into the wood wool inside her torso. That allows the head to turn.

So, I replace the broken stick with a bamboo skewer.