An elephant's trunk rehabilitation

 

This is an old toy elephant who has a droopy trunk. He is made of mohair that has become quite sparse. The stuffing in his trunk has shifted over the years and his owner does not like its droopy look.

Under his trunk is a seam. The seam has a gap that looks as if someone has opened it up before. Some sawdust or wood chips are peeking out from the gap. This is the natural place to access his trunk to err.....make it more erect.

The seam is easy to open up as the old thread is suffering from a bit of dry rot and it pops open easily. I find a variety of stuffing in the area.....kapok, sawdust and wood wool. Mostly wood wool. That is most likely what his original stuffing was. It will fill out his trunk and hold it more erect without putting undue stress on his aged mohair and the remaining old thread in the seams. Wood wool is usually called excelsior in North America.

Here I am gently stuffing some wood wool into his trunk, one or two strands at a time until I think he has enough to fill out the trunk but not too much as to stress his old fabric and thread. Then I sew up the opened seam.

It works!

He is a happier elephant now.

Let's count paint layers again.

 We are now counting how many paint layers go on a Schoenhut doll during a restoration.

I sometimes wonder why it takes me so long to do a restoration. I have always assumed that I am slow or, that I get distracted by another project etc. But sometimes, mid restoration in the painting phase, I start wondering how many coats of paint I actually put on. So, I decided to count them!

Here is my test case. A nice model 308 Schoenhut doll. Before I start counting the layers of paint I put on I have to take off all the lingering repaint and the filler from her previous restorations. Then I have to stabilize her remaining original paint and put new filler into the areas where the original paint has gone missing.

Here she is after several days getting all that done. She is ready for paint. I try to keep my repainted areas confined to the filled areas so that as much as possible of her original paint is left exposed. The process is simple. Paint a layer of paint, let it dry at least a day, sand the dried paint and then apply another coat.

Here she is after 5 coats of paint. Sometimes I can sneak 2 coats in one day with no sanding in between but still, 5 coats often takes 4-5 days to put on.

Here she is after 10 coats. The filled areas are starting to fade away put are still visible.

Here she is after 15 coats of paint. I have also been able to get in a few touchups to her eyes. She is getting there!

How many paint layers can you count?

 Sometimes, during the 100+ years of an antique doll's existence, they get multiple repairs and/or multiple paint jobs. This Schoenhut boy has met many people wielding a paintbrush during his life!

I cannot count how many layers are on him but there are many! And, they are all failing. 

This model has nice carved hair but the carved details are smothered by the multiple layers of thick paint.

The failure of the paint layers is pretty impressive!

Unfortunately for me the paint layers are not removable with acetone so he will be a slow excavation using scrapers and tiny files. All the failing paint needs to come off.

Mysterious layer on a Schoenhut doll

This doll has arrived so she can be improved upon.

She has had a total repaint of her head.

 

The repaint layer comes off easily enough but underneath is a white layer. I have never met this product on a Schoenhut doll. I usually remove every non-original layer on these dolls as they tend to obscure the carved contours. But, this white stuff is not coming off no matter what solvent I try.

Here she is minus all the paint and a bit of epoxy putty that had been put around her mouth.

This white layer is hard, smooth and stuck securely to the underlying wood. It seems to have been sprayed on as it has conformed to the underlying wood contours pretty well. 

 

I have had a few suggestions what this white is. Plaster? No......plaster has a different feel and would come off with minimal difficulty. Epoxy putty such as Miliput? No......there is no way you can apply epoxy putty into all the contours of a head like this so smoothly. Also epoxy putty will soften with acetone and this white stuff did nothing with acetone.

My best current guess is that this is a spray on gesso.

Whatever it is, it will not come off easily and I do not want to damage the underlying wood. The stuff has left her carved features visible so I decide it shall remain on. I will do a wee bit of recontouring around her eyes and mouth and then start the usual repainting process.

Here she is during the contour fixing. 

Now she is starting the multiple paint layers. She looks a little shell shocked at this point!

              

Bernadette, the composition doll.

This is Bernadette, a family doll who has had much loving! She ha s arrived to fix her eyes and get beautified.

There is something very wrong with that right eye. Those eyebrows could use some work too!

After the usual decapitation I can extract her eyes. They are constructed by glueing celluloid caps onto wood globes. The right eye cap had come loose and had rotated backwards. An inventive person had drawn a replacement eye onto the bare wood globe. This makes an easy fix as I can just reglue the cap and re-insert the eyes.

Now that her eyes are done, I can contemplate what to do with her very sparse mohair wig. There is not enough left to style so one option is a bonnet.

Another option is a full new wig. Bernadette is a big doll. Large mohair wigs are hard to find and expensive. Synthetic wigs are cheaper but less appropriate for her age.

Yet another option is hair extensions. 

Her owners are consulted and extensions are decided on. Mohair can be obtained in wefts and sewn into her existing wig. That is what she gets.

 

She goes home like this.