A story of a dirty girl..............

This little composition baby doll came to me from her original Mama.  A few months ago a lady from Wayne, NE stopped by my studio.  She had a doll trunk with three dolls from the early 30's.  They were all in pretty good condition, especially the baby doll.  We talk about the work they would need.  I mentioned that I was working on a new program on doll restoration.  She left with the dolls and was going to discuss what to do with the dolls with her mother and she would be in touch.  Last week I received a call from her...she wanted to show her mom my studio.  So we set a time and she and mom arrived as planned.  When they walked in, I recognizes the doll truck and thought they had decided to have these dolls fixed up and looking pretty once again.  They had indeed talked things over and what they decided to do was to give me these dolls to me because I would take care of them and could use them when I did my new program.  I feel very honored that her mother would entrust me to care for her three childhood dolls. 

It's been a long time since I worked on a project strictly for my enjoyment and pleasure and when I saw that little baby doll again,  I knew I wanted to bring her back to life right away.  She needed to be re-strung (as you can see by the photos) so that's where I started.  I took her about and got out my doll cleaner and went to town.  I thought I was going to need to repaint her since she was so scratch up, but once I started cleaning her, I realized, those weren't scratches at all.....it was dirt.  This little girl was really dirty.  Once she was cleaned up, I touch up her lips and lightly blushed her cheeks so the two matched.  Then I lightly re-sealed her and put her back together.  I also washed her original dress and did a little mending on it.  She's as cute as can be and will make a wonderful addition to the dolls I'll be sharing in my program.

 Here she is before her cleaning.....

 If you look closely you see the areas on her face I thought were  scratches.

 He body was is really good shape....dirty, but the composition is in great condition.

 Here she is, all clean and looking purdy again....