Life, the Universe, and Everything but Dolls....

Just saw that my last blog entry was in February.  Whew!  I have worked on several dolls between now and then, but time for blogging has been at a minimum.  My mother, who turned 85 two weeks back and whose health is declining, is in need of more and more of my time and attention - which is fine.  After all, she took care of me when I couldn't take care of myself.  Anyhow, I finally found a moment to sit down and write a new post. 

I thought I would start off with some images of the work I do that is not dolls.  I also repair pottery and some china (depending on the glaze).  Pottery pieces are the easiest as they are not highly glazed and the colors and 'sheen' are easier to mimic than highly glazed china pieces.  I have done a few china plates, but I am never satisfied.  I greatly enjoy doing the pottery pieces as they usually end up being the ones that people take hold of, turn round and round looking for the repair, and finally say, "Now, what did you do?"

Here's a pair of vases I restored recently.  They came into our consignment shop poorly repaired.  Someone has used a filler that had yellowed with time.

 

After sealing the old filler, I painted it out with a color near the base tone of the vases.

 

Next I added various pink paints to mimic the light and dark parts of the original design.

 

After adding a layer of deep pink stain, I touched the edges with gold.

 

And there you have them! 

 

 

 I mentioned last time that I had a very large 'patient' here at the house.  She has returned to her own home now - dismissed from the doll hospital.  She was a Heinrich Handwerck Simon & Halbig.  You can tell from the finished photos below how large she really was - my granddaughter found her startling she was so real (and nearly her size!)  The doll had a chip out of the lower edge of her eye socket, her eyes were broken and had to be repaired and reset, and she had to be strung.  The doll was in absolutely beautiful condition otherwise.  Quite a prize! 

Here's how she arrived.

 

This is the eye rocker with the broken eye.  There was a portion missing.  The owner wanted to keep the original eyes, so I filled the eyeball with the missing piece with a packing material and built a new side.  I then painted and stained the white of the eye - making it, in fact, grey and old looking like its match.

  

 

 

You can see the chip out of the eye socket edge mentioned above in this photo.

 

 

Here is the repaired piece before the final application of color to the area.

 

 

And here she is in my living room chair!  Big enough to look comfortable.

 

Absolutely gorgeous doll!

 

Hopefully, fairly soon I will post again and share the restoration of another one of my papier mache ladies.  I just can't help it, I love them - and the older the better.  Her she is as purchased.  When I undressed her, I was quite surprised by what I found.  You'll have to check back to find out what it was!