Broke it, then fixed it

I don’t remember why, but I lifted the hand of one of my dolls…and it came off in my fingers. Ummm… Uh-oh. Since she’s on display, I didn’t want to put her in my project pile unless I really had to, so instead of leaving her there, arm next to her feet, I inspected the arm. Why had it fallen off?

This is actually the ‘after’ picture, but I didn’t take one with her dress actually on, so it’s doing double duty.

Her head looks strange because its made of celluloid. There’s a crack in the back, but it doesn’t concern me yet. The celluloid is pretty thick and nowhere near as fragile as some of my other celluloid dolls. This one is either original or damn close to it. To me, she kind of has the face of a boy, but the dress is so old and has spent so long on her, that I’m just leaving her that way. If anyone knows for sure, please let me know.

Somewhere in either 2001 or 2002, my husband and I were wandering through an antique store in Old Town Pasadena when I spotted this doll in a glass case…way underpriced. I mean, I know she’s celluloid and therefore not desirable, but she’s also on her original body–another reason I’m not interested in taking off her head in order to reinforce the small crack on the back–with potentially original clothes.

Fast forward to 2008 when I picked up her hand. I think I was wondering if her arms were jointed or gusseted. I found out the hard way that they were jointed. The bisque lower arms are hinged at the elbow.

Well, since her arm came off, I had to find out why and see if there was anything else that needed to be done. I removed her old, yellowing dress and undergarments to discover that one of her legs had a gash in the back which had caused about half of the leather to rip to the front. I guess I didn’t notice when I first got her.

That set the stage for about a day’s worth of repair over the course of a week. I kept the doll next to my computer here on my desk and did a little at a time…mostly because I wasn’t sure how to do it! I’ve put broken or missing arms back on, but they’d only come loose. The elbow on this doll had disintegrated and I needed to rebuild it.

I guess at some point in her life, she sat in water or something for awhile. You can see the staining in the pics. It’s not just her dress, her leather body is stained, too. And on the side where her lower arm fell off, much of the leather is kind of crunchy.

Doll repair is a hobby of mine, not a profession. I’m untrained, but I care a great deal about my dolls and strive to do repairs that can be reversed. I also don’t fully restore or repaint because then the doll doesn’t look her age. 90% of my dolls are old and played-with. New ones just don’t belong in my collection. They look really out of place. I’d rather see scratches, dents and cracks than 200+ sparkling, shiny faces. I collect for the history, the stories behind the dolls.

I, myself, am not sparkling, shiny and new. I’ve got tons of stories to tell. That’s the way I like my dolls. Most collectors would turn up their noses at my junk, but those are the girls I prefer…and I like to think they prefer me, too. I put them in old dresses made by hand–sometimes even by children. That’s they way they were when they were new.

Oh, and for any of you who might be wondering…I did not notice any new paranormal activity when I got this doll and nothing new happened after I fixed her arm. I did experience a few new things at home, but I think those belong to a doll I just acquired rather than being a result of the repairs on this girl.

If something new happens, I’ll include it somewhere here on my blog for sure.

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