One of these days...

If it seems like my recent posts have been about future projects, well, it's true!  As well as repairing dolls, I am an historic interpreter.  I work in Piqua OH in the home of John Johnston, who was a Federal Indian Agent from 1802 - 1829.  You can see the house and grounds here: www.johnstonfarmohio.com  In April, May and September/October we host almost 5000 school children, and during the summer I lead 6 hour long tours a day through the 1812 Farmhouse four days a week.  Needless to say, most of my doll work gets done in the winter!  Anyhow, I am currently working on a couple of dolls for clients, but my own projects have to take a back seat until the winter lay-off.

Recently, I purchased another faded beauty on eBay.  One of my loves of the doll world is Lencis.  These felt art dolls from the 1930s (and beyond) were miniature works of art.  Of course, being made of felt (and often organdy) they were subject to fading, deterioration, and often became moth meals!  Years ago I bought, restored, and sold a Lenci boudoir or bed doll.  She was lovely and long legged, and  about 24 inches or so in length (as I remember).  A seller on eBay had a Lenci boudoir up for auction and when no one bought it, I contacted the seller and put her in layaway.  I knew she was cool and a good price, so I didn't pay too much attention to the auction details.  You can imagine my surprise when she arrived and was 36 inches tall!  Yes, THREE FEET TALL!!! 

I think I may have bit off enough that I am going to be chewing (on the repair) for a looooonnnngggg time. 

I photographed her as she arrived and will share those photos below.  I am to the point where I have removed the clothing and am ready to begin the cleaning process.  I have also purchased some 100% wool felt from an eBay seller in Australia.  She told me she had another customer purchase felt from her to repair Lencis and recommended that, along with colors, I buy ecru so I can dye it to whatever faded color I need using food coloring.  That will be interesting.

I have repaired Lencis in the past and have a process for filling in the moth holes.  The doll is not in too bad of shape though she needs an appropriate mohair wig (have to see if I can find her in the old catalogs first) and some touch-up.  One wrist is 'broken', but otherwise her body is in great shape.  She came with her stockings and shoes, which is a real plus as they are often missing on a doll of this age.

Her dress is in good shape on the front - luckily - but has moderate to severe moth damage on the back.  It will be interesting to see how the repairs progress on that.  It will be laborious and time-consuming, but well worth it in the end.

Well, enough chatter for now.  Here's the doll.  (She put on a borrowed wig for the photo below).

 

 

Note the distinctive Lenci zig-zag stitching on the top of the legs.

 The next photos detail the dress, underclothes, and stitching.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now for the moth holes!

 Stocking and high-heeled shoes

 

 

That's the before pictures.  Come back and take a look and see her 'after' - hopefully soon!

 

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!



Mind of metal

I have several 'patients' in the clinic right now.  Unlike their human counterparts, they don't mind if I share their defects and cure with the world - or if they do, they don't say anything about it!  Today I am going to walk through the restoration of a metal head. This job is a little different in that the doll is being given to a small child to play with, so no restoraton of the body has been done.  A brand new body has been added to the restored head.  The old body will be preserved and can be replaced with the original when the child has moved past the stage where she wants to play with it, and it becomes a collectible or cherished item. 

 

Metal heads were the 'solution' to the same problem for Victorian mothers in the 19th century, only their concern was the bisque head of the doll that so often ended up smashed on a tile or wood floor.  In the late 19th century a myriad of substitutes appeared including tin and other metals and celluloid.  None, though, had the same realistic look of flesh and most were not embraced by their little mommies.

 

Here's my patient as she looked when she arrived.

 

 

I removed the head from the body, as I was not going to deal with it during this repair/restoration.  As I did, the paint flaked off and it became apparent that I would have to remove all of the paint.  The one exception was the eyes.  They were intact and I like to leave as much original as I can, so I protected them and worked the new paint up and into the old.  I also left as much of the original hair as I could, though in the end I had to repaint it entirely.

 

Once the paint was removed I cleaned and fixed the metal (as shown above).  Also shown above is a the filler I used on the hair to level out the areas where paint had chipped off.  This was sanded and sealed before any new paint was applied. 

Above you can see the doll with the new paint applied.  I did the skin and hair colors first and then startred in on the detailing.  As mentioned before I left the original eyes and worked the new paint around her.  In this photo I have added color to the lid lines, eyes lining, and lips.  Nothing has been done with the cheeks.  The hair has been painted but no shading has been applied to imitate the look of the original hair.

 

Metal heads were shiny to begin with so I used a semi-gloss fixative (mom-aerosol).  The flash makes it appear to be gloss, but it was not.  In the above photo the hair has been 'stained' to imitate the look of the original and all detailing, including eyebrows completed. 

 

Here she is finished and on the new body, which was taken intact from a newer Danbarry Mint doll purchased on EBay.

 

And here she is complete and ready to be sent home to her new owner. 

 

 

Next week I am giving a talk at the Troy Hayner Cultural Center in Troy, OH.  You can find information regarding the presentation here:  http://www.troyhayner.org/antiques-seminar.html  Since January about 30 of my dolls have been on display there, and they will continue to be through March.  Once they are back home, I will show the end results of the restoration on the wax fashion I detailed some months back along with others I mentioned. I haven't forgotten!  They have been on tour! 

 

Look for another post soon regarding some of my current patients and their treatments.  In my home right now I am 'caring for' several, including a near 40" tall Bisque doll and her little friend who is less than 4" high.  Talk about contrast....

 

 

Even the doll doctor can learn a thing or two

Wow.  I can't believe it has been over 5 months since I posted!  As I have grown older, the reality of the expression 'time flies' has grown increasingly - and uncomfortably - present.  It just amazes me.  I get up each day thinking, 'I should post to my blogs', and then the day rushes by and - ZAP! half a year is gone.

Anyhow, this is not an update on past projects, but just a moment to share something fun from the doll world.  My husband has a consignment shop and I do the online listing for EBay, Etsy, etc.  Every so many weeks or months I get a batch of dolls to list.  This time there were several composition mama dolls, a good many foreign souvenier dolls, a few Duchess and Hollywood - and this pair. 

Whenever my husband hands me a vintage cloth doll, I know I am in for an interesting time.  My speciality is antique and vintage bisque dolls.  Along the way, over twenty plus years of restoring dolls - and reading about them - I have picked up information about vintage composition and plastic as well.  I have Lencis, so I know about them, and I have several reference books on cloth dolls. but - and it is a BIG but - I do not know enough to distinguish between a well-made homemade set of Raggedys and original hand manufactured ones.  So, when I go this pair, I put them up on EBay at a reasonable price and waited....

And boy, was I surprised!  Apparently this pair consist of an original Volland Raggedy Ann and Andy.  I talked with bidders from around the world about them, and it is odd that Ann does not have a little wooden heart in her chest.  Still, all seemed to believe the pair original.  According to Gayle Garbarino whose blog can be found at http://www.notsoraggedyacre.com/volland.htm   the P.F. Volland company created and published greeting cards and children's books including Johnny Gruelle's books featuring Raggedy Ann and Andy.  In August 1915 Gruelle signed a contract with Volland for his book Raggedy Ann Stories.  In September of the same year Gruelle received the patent for the dolls.  I have looked at the blogs and books and am still scratching my head.  I can't seem to tell the homemade from the handmade from the early manufactured Raggedys.

Just goes to show you there is always something new you can learn!

Anyhow, I thought I would share some photos of these two who went to very nice bidder in Wisconsin for a tidy little sum.  She has them now and is enjoying their company. 

 

I do have a few repair projects going on  right now including two very large BJB bisque head dolls, a tin head, a newer china, and a BJB baby.  I will share photos and some info on them ASAP.  I also have a display of my dolls at a local cultural center and will be giving a talk on antique dolls there at the end of this month.  Information and photos will follow - soon, I promise!  For the moment, you can look at the Hayner's website and read a bit about it.  http://www.troyhayner.org/antiques-seminar.html

Would love to see some of you there!

The Doctor is in...well, at least for a bit

I found a few moments today to work with a few of my 'patients'.  The last time I worked on my little English Wax Fashion doll, I had completed work on the head, restoring it to much of its former beauty. 

At that time I had not yet begun to work on the body or the clothing.  There was really little to do on the body other than to find and add a pair of arms.  The clothing needed a good wash, which was accomplished first with Orvus and then a product I love called Re-store.  Re-store was created for quilters and meant to take the yellowing out of old delicate textiles.  It works wonders on antique doll clothes and is completely safe and very gentle.  I also tackled cleaning her shoes.  I think there is enough there to restore them so she can wear the originals, but that is a job for another day. 



 Recently on EBay I made contact with a lovely seller named Lynda Randle.  Her EBay seller ID is lyndalou4u.  She used to work in a doll hospital and she makes lovely replacement leather arms for dolls.  I purchased a pair for a very reasonable price on EBay and when I checked, found they were perfect for the wax fashion doll.  If you are looking for leather arms for one of your dolls, please check her work out on EBay.  You can see the arms in the photo of the doll below.  (And yes, those are the same clothes as shown above!)

Her dress is on the way.  I purchased it on Ruby Lane and will share the completed doll with you as soon as it arrives and she has donned her walking suit. 

Here is an update on my Gallimufry girl.  I baked her a bit more today to remove the old wax.  Her charm is starting to shine through.  Check back for more soon as I begin to restore this lovely little girl.