My papier mache or patent washable type 'Alice' came to me via EBay. I search the doll items there for needs for clients, but also for dolls that only a mother...or doll doctor could love. I enjoy rescuing dolls that would seem to most to be hopeless cases. Alice was certainly one of those! She arrived with 2/3 of her head missing, but her face intact, a good deal of damage to her breastplate, and no body. In April's post I showed the first few steps in her restoration, which included repairing her plate, creating a new base 'head', and then sculpting and modeling her missing hair and headband. The last pictures posted showed Alice with her final skin tone and underpainting for her hair. I have now completed her and am posting photos of the rest of the process. She has a new dress on order for the Hatter's tea party that will match her burgundy headband, but for now is wearing a nice white dress with a little black sash (perfect for shrinking and growing in!). Alice is 28 inches tall and turned out to be a really sweet little girl.
In order to age the hair color, I applied a brown and then a white wash over the deep golden hair paint. The skin tone has not been changed from the previous post. An appropriate body was obtained from EBay and the head attached. Alice's features were created with a mixture of paint and professional colored pencils. I find the pencils work best for eyebrows and lashes. I used photos of several similar dolls from this period to base the features on. I did not add lashes to Alice as I noted that most of the dolls did not have them, or had lost them to time. My aim is to make the dolls look as original as possible and, if possible, to maintain an illusion of age even though I have just freshly painted and completed them. No 19th century doll should look brand new!
Next post - Miss Dolly gets a re-do.
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