Complete Composition Restoration
Composition dolls from the 1930s and 1940s often suffer damage such as cracking, crazing, and lifting as well as damage from “critters.” Full composition restoration is very labor intensive but also very rewarding as a doll in poor condition is brought back to as close as possible to its original condition. This means that when painting features, I try to duplicate the original style which varies from company to company. When doing composition restoration, I try to preserve as much of the original paint as possible. For instance, the fingernails of the large mama doll are the original paint which were in excellent condition. Sometimes only some pieces of the doll need repair. The doll with the broken, missing piece of torso needed that restored as well as some fingers. The head was in good condition so only minimal craze control was used on her face. Since composition dolls are sensitive to variations of temperature as well as moisture, try to keep the dolls in a climate controlled environment. They do not do well in attics, garages, or basements.
Restyle Hair
Restyling hair can range from smoothing down some stray hairs to restyling a mohair wig into Shirley Temple ringlets. I am able to redo Barbie ponytails as well. Sometimes the hair is mostly missing or in very poor condition. In this case, I am able to replace the hair with a wig that is appropriate to the type of doll.
Finger and Toe Restoration
Jenell's Doll can do restoration on antique paper-mache, composition, and resin doll fingers and toes. This can range from a simple matching of paint to creating and replacing missing fingers or toes. Unfortunately, at this point, I am unable to replace fingers or toes on vinyl or hard plastic dolls.
Faceup & Repaint
One thing I very much enjoy is painting dolls. I have done porcelain reproduction dolls for many years and have experimented with repainting vinyl fashion dolls such as Barbie, Gene and the Tonner dolls. Doing face-ups on ball jointed dolls (BJDs) and Dollfie Dream heads is my latest hobby.
