Ukrainian Doll Fix

 Woohoo! A small job here :-)
This little doll needs restringing and some missing paint on her face fixed.

She is made of a later type of composition.

She is now restrung.

And her face has been touched up.

Wagner & Zetzsche Haralit doll

This doll was made in Germany about 1916 by Wagner & Zetzsche. He is named "Harald" and was part of their Haralit Art Doll line. These dolls had a new type of composition head and a variety of bodies.

This particular example is in rough shape....at least his head is....the rest of him is in decent shape and he even retains most of his original clothes.

Harald's head crack is impressive and it has distorted the actual composition. His painted features are almost gone.

Here you can see his body.
He has composition jointed arms on an oilskin body. Other than the arms needing restringing, the body does not need any work. The oilcloth has discoloured a bit and the arms have crazed....but this is OK for a doll of this age.
The head however does need a makeover.

Makeover done.
Oh, and the arms got restrung too.


His lederhosen are being spruced up. A dressed picture will be coming soon.

As promised.....lederhosen :-)
He wears his original leather lederhosen, cotton shirt, oilcloth shoes and  cotton 'Loferl' (Bavarian calf-warmers).
His original felt suspenders were shredding so he now has suspenders made from vintage felt.

Bosson head

This is a Bosson head.
It is a type of chalkware material. If you own one....secure it to your wall securely as they do not do well when they fall down!
This guy has fallen and sustained several chips to his facial features.

 Here he is, with his injuries repaired......

More fingers

This is a small hand from a composition ball-jointed body. It is missing 2 fingers plus has old repair material and paint still attached.

This is the hand with the aging repair compound and paint removed.

 This is the hand with the missing fingers rebuilt and the paint blended into the old finish.

Marjorie

Marjorie is a composition doll who has made the journey from Canada to my workshop in Florida to have a make-over.

She has had some work done previously.                                                                                                                                                      

It is time to peel back the layers to reveal her true beauty.

Well, several layers have been peeled but she is no beauty yet.
She reveals a traumatic history....significant skull fractures. Apparently someone threw her down a flight of stairs many years ago! Composition was once advertised as 'unbreakable'. It is not unbreakable.....

Torso is cracked and almost in 2 pieces.

The full extent of the head damage is more visible here. The white material is an old repair compound that has gone soft and will have to be removed.

Maybe it does not look too different yet, but the old repair material has been removed and replaced by a good epoxy. Next will be the filling of defects and recontouring of the missing areas.

Looking a bit better?

Better now?
Flesh tone has been started. Her eyes have been rejuvenated and she will get new teeth.

These are the eyes before rejuvenation.

These are the eyes after rejuvenation.
You can see the teeth better too. Marjorie came toothless but originally had teeth. I am replacing them with one of the more typical arrangements of the time.....two upper teeth with a red felt backing.

Getting better?
She still needs eyelashes and eyebrows painted but progress is being made.....

Well, the eyes put up a fight! The mounting bar was rusted shut. It needs to expand across the inside of the head to hold the eyes in place. A couple days soaking in Liquid Wrench and a bit of muscle power made it functional again.

Next I need to recreate the internal head bar that the stringing elastic hooks into. It has gone missing somewhere during Marjorie's escapades!

 Here is Marjorie back together.
She needs some clothing now!

Marjorie has come a long way.
Time for her to return home......

German bisque doll repair

This doll needed a few tweaks.
Arms repaired and re-attached, eyes reset and head re-atttached.
It also needed a cleaning and a wig.

Done....

"Jeannie"

This is Jeannie.
She survived getting her fingers nipped off by a horse in the 1940's and getting her heel burnt and water damage in a house fire.
Her owner wanted her restored to her former beauty.

Jeannie's eyes had loft much of their colour. I have never seen that before.

 Her torso was split down the side and at the bottom.

The charred heel looked minor, but when I started scraping off the burnt composition, I found more extensive damage. 

 Here is the heel with all the burnt composition removed.

This is Jeannie dismantled and all her loose paint removed.

Next, her missing parts get rebuilt....lots of resurfacing and sanding. 

Jeannie's eyes were a puzzle.

How do I get their colour back?

A bit of experimentation showed that painting them would work.

The slots on top of the iris are where her eyelashes were. New eyelashes will get glued in there. 

Now Jeannie has been filled/sanded and primed.

Many layers of filler/primer were needed. 

Then starts the usual applications of skintone paint and facial features. Here she is mid paint job.

Jeannie finished and dressed.

Hard Plastic Doll Problems

This post is about the hard plastic dolls of the 1950's and 60's. Plastic does not last forever. The early plastics, in particular, are prone to degradation that shows up in various ways. You might find white/gray stuff on your doll.

This is not dirt or mould.
This is leaching plasticizer....a sign that the plastic is breaking down.
Degrading plastics can get sticky, they can get coated in a variety of weird substances and they can get a funky smell.

Degrading plastics can become brittle and fragile.
The degradation process can not be stopped.

I can clean the leached plasticizer off your doll but I cannot tell you how long it will last.











So your doll can go from this:

To this:

But I cannot tell you how long the cleaning will last. The plasticizer will reappear at some point. It might be 1 year, 10 years...who knows.
If you keep the doll away from extreme temperatures and humidity, it will slow the degradation process down. It is also important to keep the doll away from other vintage plastics as some degradation processes produce gasses which will adversely affect other plastics.