Doll Repair Tranquility

It dawns on me that I actually have some peace, some tranqility at this early hour. My cat, Emma, aka Lady Gaga de Bathory, is snoozing on her baby blanket, with her dolls and stuffed mousie toys lined up next to her. She has just hopped into the bathtub after my husband showered. She is our mermaid cat. Yesterday is our late dog Killer Lord Byron's anniversary with us; we brought a little black scotty/poodle mix home in a shoe box that he couldn't climb out of, in a terrible storm. I loved him. He came home in 1977, and he was with me till he passed away in my Dad's arms from a stroke.

Killie didn't like dolls; he had his own squeaky toys, buried with him in a quiet patch of woods we own. When my mom and I came back from a doll show and laid out our finds on my bed, he took a peek inside the room, left, and returned with his sqeaky monkey doll, and jumped in the middle of the bed. He had a lamb and black dog he loved, and some knitted toys my mom made. I still have them in his memory. Yet, he hated a lifesized boxer that is a nice plush addition to the collection, and he had Raggedy Ann in a death grip, by her throat one fine day. Repairing and making dolls is something that goes hand in hand with my collecting, though my Mom would say, "Don't make too many; We're running out of room!!"" Little did she know. Over the years, I've repaired my compo dolls, painted blind dolls into visionm again, put together and glued all kinds of dolls, sewed them, made clothes, created them using xeroxed photos of dolls heads and bodies that I built up with clay or play dough and then painted. I used mole fur for hair, a la Dr. Scholls, on the advice of author Catherine Christopher, and I used Q-tips for limbs on tiny dolls. I made Kleenex dolls in imitation of cornhusk dolls, but made soap,c oornhusk, leaf, dirt clay dolls, cookie dolls, marshmallow dolls, twig dolls, apple heads, salt clay dolls, paper dolls by the hundreds if not thousands. Some had patterns, some art projects, like my Milliners Model head. My friend Violet Page showed me how to make bodies for china heads, and my friend Michael Canadas from my California days explained to me how to dress a doll without a pattern and how to make my own patterns. I'm no Mrs. Westfall, who did a great gook on doll repair, or Mrs. Clear, law degree notwithstanding. But, I fis my own. I won't do it for others, though I've dressed a baby now and then, but I will work on mine. I restore, not make over completely. Wear is part of a doll's story. My friend ML just brought me another group of vintage fifties/sixties dolls htat need help. I started cleaning them up yesterday, and put the arm on one using surgical tape, which is a godsend for doll doctors. I will put oup their photos as soona s I can get them back from Walgreens. My mom and I liked knitted outfits, and she was a mster knitter. I will have a whole gallery devoted to the dolls she dressed, knitted and otherwise. Even when she died, she was working on a doll outfit, and I found a whole basket of doll clothes. How I miss her. I nearly gave up on the dolls when she died, but I realized they are what keep me going, and keep her alive for me. We boight baby clothes for them, and little girls dresses, especially antique and vintage. That is what my dolls that are newly fixed are wearing. I just found a pink, smokced dress in a check pattern that fits a companion doll that I had to put back together. Antother is wearing an infant girl pirate Halloween outfit. Like many, I keep stash of doll shoes and wigs, small buttons and trims, doll socks, etc. Children's shoes and booties make good additions to doll costumes as do muffs and small hats and purses. They cheer me up. I recent 90% off find at B. Franklin's helped shoe a lot of customers at my museum. They all look very nice when lined up. I have dolls that our pristine, and antique, and all original, MIB, etc. We value them, too, but I can't help but enjoy working ont hem, and rescuing a doll that was destined for the Landfill, and maybe a watery grave in the River, to be rescued by the LLW Barge!