Grumpy gets a new finger.

 

This guy looks seriously grumpy!

Maybe he is grumpy because he has lost a finger?

I should fix that!

First, a wire support for the new epoxy clay finger gets glued in.

He has his new finger....but he is still grumpy!

A Schoenhut doll and fillers galore!

 

This is an interesting 14" Schoenhut doll.

She has been repainted but does not look like any particular Schoenhut model.

Her owner stripped off the first layer of repaint

But she still doesn't look like a standard Schoenhut model.

So she got sent to me.

The white coating was primer so I stripped it all off.

Under the primer was this.

Lots and lots of filler! It was quite thick in many areas.

The filler was altering original facial features so it got stripped off too.

Under the filler on her left face was some wood damage.

She will need a filler put back there.

A front view.

She has had some harrowing life experiences!

A bit of filler here and there plus a fair bit of paint leaves her looking more in keeping with original Schoenhut doll paint.

My best guess as to her model is #308.

Rubber hands on a German bisque head doll

 This nice old doll has arrived to get freshed up.

Her wig is messy, her hands are odd and she has something weird feeling on her torso under her sewn on longjohns.

The stitches on the longjohns get picked open.

Happily, the weird feeling thing on her torso turned out to be a wad of hardened elastic inside a pair of underwear. She had no issues with her torso after all.

Her hands are interesting. These are rubber hands. Unfortunately rubber does not age well and these hands are warped and quite brittle. Her left hand is crumbling at the wrist.

Old rubber can not be rejuvinated. You either accept the warped look and the knowledge that they will continue to crumble away or you replace the hands.

Vintage parts can sometimes be hard to find. Fortunately I had a composition pair that would fit and they got painted to match her body finish.

Then it was on to hair styling!

After a new 'do she headed home.

She gets reunited with her original dress.

This is a factory chemise which identifies her as an Eaton's Beauty Doll.

China heads on dissolving bodies

 In come two china dolls and what is left of their bodies.

Doll #1's head is off already.

She has a cloth body stuffed with sawdust and china lower limbs.

The cloth suffers from dry rot and is very weak with multiple tears and sawdust leaking everywhere.

The best approach is to remove all the stiches from the old cloth body and use the remnants to make a pattern for a new cloth body.

Here is the pattern.

One has to extrapolate the pattern lines around the torn/missing areas.

Here is a new body part way through getting stuffed with sawdust.

Doll #'s new body is done.

Doll #2's body is in equally bad shape although someone has tried to recover her legs at some point.

She gets the same type of new body as her twin.

Both are done.

And dressed in the clothes they arrived in.

5 boxes and 14 dolls!!!

So, I got sent 5 boxes containing 14 dolls that needed a variety of repairs. Thanks Laurie :-)

Some didn't need much. Others were a challenge!

First up were these two.

There were some fabric holes that looked suspiciously like mouse nibbles. That was not going to be easily fixable so they stay as is.

Next was this little Scottish doll. His chin strap was shredding and his head seam was separating.

So he just got a new felt chin strap.

Trying to glue the head seam back together would have been very involved. Vintage plastic often has warped and stiffened. It usually will not glue back together without fillers etc. He was served best by just hiding the split.

Then came this little bisque baby. 

He needed his leg repaired and some restringing.

Done.

Now we have a half doll whose dress trim is shredding and her skirt is awry.

An adjustment of her skirt seams got done and her shredded trim got replaced by antique beaded trim.

This is an antique German bisgue head doll whose head is broken. Fortunately her eyes look intact.

A head back together and a new wig can do wonders!

This guy is funny. He has some weird wires coming out of his feet and he does not stand up well.

He gets a stand into which the wires insert.

Done!

This is a 1950's walking doll.

Her hip joint on one side had lost its fastener so everything was falling apart.

All put back together and an outfit found.

Her head material is vinyl which has yellowed over the years. There is no fix for that without detaching her head and soaking it in various noxious chemicals. So, her coloring stays as is.

This guy is an unusual Pierrot figure. 

His feet have broken.

His face needs a few touch ups.

A surprise when he gets undressed......his body is made by wrapping crepe paper around wood wool and wire. The crepe paper is disintegrating.

His feet have gone through previous repairs.

Once I dissolve and remove the old glue from the first foot I get this!

Aak!!!

Piece by piece, the foot gets glued back together.

While glue dries, I start working on his facial touch ups. After a few pokes here and there and some scraping of lumpy paint, I find his odd looking nose was the result of previous work. His whole nose seems to have been rebuilt from a yellow compound similar to plasticine. It is still soft! All this yellow compound needs to come off.

Another 'Aak!' was uttered after removing all the yellow stuff.

He needs a whole new nose built!

He also has multiple layers of paint over wax covered plaster. All the added layers need to come off before new paint will stick.

This is after  piecing his feet together and doing a lot of facial work.

Even his mandolin is gettong some repairs.

Now his limbs are reattached and he has a fresh wrapping of crepe paper.

He also gets a custom made stand. He was built to sit on something, reportedly a lamp.

This will keep him safely sitting.

Finally he is done.

He has a bit of a different look than when he arrived but I could not find any identical dolls to know how he looked originally.

During breaks from the poor Pierrot doll, I move on to this doll. It is a Japanese gofun doll. Gofun is the white compound that is the top coating of these dolls. It is traditionally made from ground up oyster shells.

This little doll needs to be restrung and is missing something from the top of her head.

Something was there once......

A bit of research showed that this doll once had a wig with a little topknot.

So a wig is what she gets after she gets restrung.

Next is this little bisque doll. This style of doll is often called a 'Frozen Charlotte'.

She has a previous repair on one arm that is sturdy. She is missing one earring.

So she just gets a cleanup and a matched pair of earrings.

Then on to this small china head doll. 

She has old masking tape over a hole in her cloth body.

Unfortunately her cloth body suffers from dry rot and there are multiple holes. The fabric is too weak to patch.

The best option is a new body.

The she gets some clothes made from antique fabrics.

Next up is this Japanese couple.

The man's head falls off as he gets unwrapped.

He used to have hair.

The lady used to have hair too but, more significantly, she used to have a complete face.

After the lady gets some serious plastic surgery, they both get hairdos.

This poor girl is next.

She is a lamp doll. Her head is wax coated. Her dress is silk. With applied flowers.

The silk is not in the best shape. Silk tends to shatter with time. The fibres shear. There is no cure.

Her nose hs been flattened. Likely because her wire lamp base that is under her skirt is unsteady and she tends to topple over.

The flowers were applied to the dress with glue.

This glue was likey a hide glue as it has darkened as it aged. Each clump of flowers has old brown glue peeking out at the edges.

There is no way to get this glue off without destroying the silk flowers or the silk dress fabric.

The dress still had a faded beauty so it was decided to leave it as is. The doll got a wee nose job and then her wire lamp frame under her skirt got stapled to a base so she wouldn't keep toppling over.

And I forgot to get her picture before she headed home!