Another Schoenhut doll

 

This head has arrived with most of it's paint already removed.

It had had a poor repaint but, unfortunately, when the repaint was removed, there was essentialy no original paint underneath.

The nose and left eye's contours need rebuilding.

There is lingering bits of dark brown paint and a varity of fillers that should be removed to get to a stable surface for rebuilding and repainting.

Now the head is ready to get gessoed which will seal the bare wood.

First layer of filler and paint and we get this.....

Multiple layers later....

Then a bit more paint.....

A large bisque headed doll repair

 

This is a large German bisque headed doll who is a family heirloom. She has arrived to make her look less scary.

Apparently the white colour of her eyes when she was supposed to be 'sleeping' was unnerving to the family member who handed me the doll :-)

That is just some missing eyelids.....but she has scarier issues than that to me.

She has some serious cracks. Cracks in the front...

...and cracks in the back.

Even a few chips and missing chunks of bisque.

This head looks to be almost completely broken in two. What is holding it together?

Inside the head I find someone has reset the sleep eyes with gray epoxy clay and then added hot glue gun glue to that for extra measure.

Another view.

These compounds are solid and trying to remove them will be hazardous to the eye rocker, so the cracks need to be consolidated from the outside.

But first, this very dirty head needs a good scrub and all the old glue from the wig needs to come off.

After a cleaning the cracks get consolidated. That gets done by painting a thinned adhesive along the cracks that can seep in and harden.

Next the cracks will get filled a bit.

A wig, eyelashes/eyelids and some age appropriate clothes help her look less scary.

Maplelea Doll hips again

 

This is 'Elise'. She has arrived in a wheel chair!

Why is she in a wheel chair?

Both of her hip sockets are almost fully torn out of her body.

This happens to these dolls when the thread stitching the plastic hip socket to the fabric body gets worn down by movements at the hip.

To re-stitch the hips you need to remove the legs from the plastic hip sockets.

You will need to remove the head and unstuff the body to complete this repair.

There are a few stitches at the top of the neck that need to be picked out.

This doll's head is attached with string. Some are attached with cable ties.

Undo the knots or cut the cable tie to get the head off.

Stitch the hip socket back on to the body.

Here one hip is done.

This is a tension cup or stringing cup. You will have to fish this out of the leg. Warming the vinyl up with a hair dryer and using needle nosed plies to pull it out usually works nicely.

New elastic is secured with a big knot and then you push the whole thing back in the leg.

The leg should look like this.

Now you thread the new elastic through your nicely stitched hip socket, pull it and knot it.

Restuff the body, attach the head and....

Dog vs. doll

 

This is a nice antique baby doll who likely dates from the 1920's.

She has been chomped on by a dog.

Her hands and the ends of her arms are missing. Hopefully they did not cause too much indigestion to the dog?

Her feet have been munched too.

The sole of one foot is missing along with it's cardboard insert.

Some suspicious tooth marks?

Bad dog!

Fortunately her porcelain head and glass eyes are unbroken although she is missing a tooth.

From my parts stash come a pair of antique composition hands that need some repairs and alterations to fit this type of body. They once had a hook but now are on their way to getting flanges made so that they can be wired into the cloth arms.

Inside the torso is a silent voicebox.

The voicebox.

The inside of the voicebox.

The bellows is supposed to push air through a squeaker. The bellows cloth has no rips or holes but the glue along the seam has dried out. Now air goes through the seam instead of the squeaker.

Hopefully regluing the seam will be all it needs?

While the voicebox glue dries, I start on the body.

Here I have taken apart one leg to make a pattern for a new leg.

Similar patterns are made for the other body bits.

Here is one leg done and the other leg waiting to get stuffed.

The voice box works again too.

She is done.

Her joints are simple wire and washer types.

This was a common joint style and was simpler to do for the factory than an inside-the-joint cotterpin and disc style.

The string in her mouth is there only to hold her eyes stationary while she returns through the mail.

It will be snipped and removed once she gets back home.

Glass sleep eyes should always be immobilized for shipping. If they flap around while the box gets tossed around, there is a big chance they will arrive broken.

An unusual composition and cloth doll

 

These are bits of a doll that have arrived to get repaired and reconstructed.

Someone was working on the doll previously but did not finish her.

Her face has some filler roughly applied at the corners of her eyes and on her neck.

Her hair is wrapped with tissue.

Her neck needs some extra filler and some recontouring.

The neck hole in her body needs to be rebuilt too.

Her limbs are cloth with a coating of a plaster type compound and paint.

Some of the layers are missing.

I did neglect to get inbetween pictures but here she is modeling one outfit option.

The sleeve holes were unfinished and a 'fur' stole could cover the area.

But then, some leftover fabric was found in the craftsperson's stash.......so the dress gets sleeves.

A vinyl doll and a Crazy Glued eye

 

This is Christiane. A well-loved vinyl doll.

She was made by the German company "Schildkrot".

Her right eye is a bit beat up and does not work well. Most of the lashes are gone.

Her left eye is cloudy and stationary. Why?

Her owner's little brother damaged the eye so her owner fixed it with Crazy Glue. Oh oh...Crazy Glue is hard to reverse.

Keen eyes might spot another problem?

Christiane's stuffing is shredded foam. That stuff gets nasty as it ages and needs to be replaced.

Some chew marks on her feet?

Apparently the little brother is the culprit!

The eyes get extracted. These are the bits of her 'good' eye. There is some broken plastic to account for why it was not working. That could be repaired but unfortunately the crazy glued eye was unsalvageable after it extraction. Crazy glue was meant to be permanent!

So I go eyeball shopping.....

These eyes are very compact and not a typical North American doll size. But with some alterations, a domestic pair was made to work.

That is quite the expression!

Her old body is unstitched and used as a pattern for a new body.

Her old body will get folded up and placed inside the stuffing of her new body.

A new body with no more disintegrating foam stuffing. This one has polyester stuffing.