Oh dear.....the poor thing!!!

This is a composition doll from the 1910's or 20's.
She has had a hard life. She unfortunately seems to have had previous repairs using plaster that was not sanded smooth or contoured.
She has a layer of bad over-paint on top of lumpy plaster on top of hardly-there original paint which is barely hanging on to the cracking skim composition layer. There are a lot of layers to remove before she can start her renewal!

Every old doll deserves a chance.
This was likely some child's cherished doll so it too deserves to be restored.

The first thing to do is to try to uncover and document the original features so that they can be restored or re-created.
A bit more original eye paint is uncovered No original eyebrows are left.

The poor thing is beheaded and unstuffed to start repairs.
The stuffing is excelsior....shredded wood. A typical stuffing in early composition dolls.
The voice box is extracted. It is silent.

The voice boxes can usually be repaired so that they make noises again. It was originally advertised that they say 'Mama' or cry like a baby. This one, when I tested it, sounded more like a indignant goose. These were not high-tech sound machines!
The usual problem is that the bellows that forces the air through the squawker has stiffened with age. The bellows needs to be replaced.





The next steps involve chipping off old cracked paint and that is messy! Without a good workshop I do that outside....but where is our nice Spring weather???? It has been cold and soggy far too long!
But at least I got the bellows replaced. This doll will squawk again.

Ah....some nice weather....the work continues and my deck is littered with pieces of cracked paint now.

And here is the result.

All the cracking and defective layers are gone leaving bare composition exposed in most areas. The composition has some issues that  were likely caused by past exposures to moisture.
Composition is basically a sawdust and glue product. It does not like moisture!

The missing bits will get filled in with epoxy putty.

Here we are in the middle of rebuilding/filling/priming.
This poor doll is needing many layers. Each layer has to dry 24+ hours then gets sanded and recontoured for the next layer.
Slow but steady progress......

On to the paint booth for many layers of skin tone.

She has finished the journey through the hair and make-up department.

A new muslin body replaces her old shredding one and her repaired voice box is packed inside with the original excelsior stuffing.

She gets a simple cotton dress. This one is antique baby dress that was repaired and altered to fit her.

A Gebruder Heubach doll gets presentable

This doll is in a bit of a mess. His head is perfect but his body is in pieces and is leaking sawdust everywhere.
The kid leather bodies often have a cotton cover to the sawdust stuffing. This cotton was shredded and had a few previous repairs..
The cotton gets replaced so the sawdust stays put and the whole doll gets reassembled.

Now for some clothes.
I found an antique pair of baseball pants that were a little worse for wear. Still lots of usable fabric left.....maybe a baseball uniform then?

Magic Skin dolls deteriorate

This is a doll from the late 1950's who has a vinyl head and a magic skin body. Magic skin was an early latex/rubber material that was meant to give a doll a more realistic feel. Magic skin certainly did give that realistic feel to the dolls but it unfortunately did not stand the test of time. Magic skin often develops problems such as discoloration, pitting, tearing and stiffening.
This doll has several tears in the magic skin and it's left wrist has hardened and cracked with the hand torn totally off.
Magic skin can be patched and repaired but will remain fragile and will likely continue to deteriorate.

Here is the doll's wrist close up.

The doll's eyes have a problem characteristic of early plastics. The cataract like coating is leaching plasticizer. Many early plastics are degenerating and one way they show this is this powdery coating.
This coating can be cleaned off but is likely to recur at some point.

Here she is cleaned up.
Her eyes have some pitting and changes from the plastic degeneration process but they still have a nice vintage look to them.

Her owner preferred the body to end up strong enough to get played with by the grandchildren.
So, rather than repairing the old magic skin, we opted for a body transplant.

I was lucky enough to find a vintage stuffed rubber body that was similar to her old magic skin one. The rubber on this body was thicker and sturdier and should stand up to play.

Her clothes and hair got a bit of sprucing up and she is ready to return home.

Glass eye repair

 This is a German bisque-headed doll whose eyes have become detached and are loose inside her head.
The wig has been secured with massive amounts of glue so the eyes did not get lost but  they are not easily accessible either.
If you have a doll with glass eyes rattling around inside the head like this, gently stuff Kleenex into the head through the eyeballs until the head is full enough that the eyes cannot move.
This will help prevent them them from breaking until they are safely extracted and remounted.
Antique glass eyes are very thin and break easily.

The wig had to come off to fix the eyes and fortunately the old glue softened with water. It still took a while to get the wig off safely though!
Unfortunately these eyes had spent too long rattling around and were broken.
Glass eyes can often be repaired however.
This broken eyeball was only in 2 pieces so it was easy to glue it back together.

Her eyes have been repaired and reset back in the head so they sleep again.
Her wig will not get reglued. It stays easily on her head without it .

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......