JULY 18TH

 Well another Sunday appears! The daily photos are still happening although some much later in the day sometimes than others.

Magda agreed to have her photo taken first thing this morning when the sun was already starting to heat up, it's due to be one of the hottest days of the year so far, they are saying.

So what's happened this week ! Well I had some physio on my arm/shoulder and now have a set of exercises to do, did really feel it a few hours later and yesterday but no pain no gain as they say !

The weather has turned really warm! which is sort of nice, nice that it is warm but if it's too warm it's no good to anyone. We went shopping at 8am Saturday in order to avoid, not only any crowds ,but also the rising temperature.

We are working on the garden most days , me having ideas of things I would like and Paul telling me it's too hot ! lol No Paul will then say how it can happen or be made and then starting to prepare.

One of the things we did this week was restring two of the dolls. I went to change Jenny into summer wear and with her legs and head flopping around I realised I would need to restring her first and so I also added Valentine for a restring as he's been floppy for a couple of years!

So one Trendon and one Gotz, so two different styles of stringing but you can do them whichever way you like.

so with Trendon dolls they have two elastics, one between head and legs and a second across for the arms.

When you remove each leg and the head, make sure you keep hold of the metal hooks that are attached to the legs , so they don't drop down inside. also with the neck hook, take it off the bar in the neck.

The elastic is a joined loop folded in half across the neck hook. Remember to use the old elastic to measure how much you need for the replacement but reduce it by around a quarter of an inch or so to allow for the stretch. You can tie the loop together or use a metal clip to join it.

Then once elastic looped over head hook, hook back onto neck bar and and push both ends od elastic through into body. Use something to hook onto the first string and pull it down and out side of leg hole and hook leg back on, then repeat for second leg. The elastic is now strong , so will take some pulling to get out far enough to rehook legs, helps to have someone hold elastic while someone else hooks legs on.

For arms you just remove arms making sure to keep hold of metal arm hooks, then again loop a piece of elastic slightly smaller than the one you removed , the rehook one arm, feed through into body, use a tool like a crochet hook to pull elastic loop through to hook on other arm.

For Gotz dolls , they use one loop of string from the head. You need to remove all the limbs , keeping hooks from dropping inside of limbs. Then remove head, boil some water, place water in bowl, hold heck into water for thirty or so seconds and then it should be soft enough to get the wooden ring out of the neck, can is a spoon handle to push over onto side and pull through. 

Then you will see the two ends of the string through the ring with a nail or oin pushed through to keep the string from falling /being pulled through neck hole.

remove pin and keep safe, cut another piece of elastic again slightly smaller than the old piece, the push two new ends through neck , then push pin/nail through both ends of elastic , this will stop elastic getting back through hole. remember the wooden ring is wider one side than the other, widest side is bottom, so the side you can see when in doll, it needs to catch rim inside neck, smaller side will just slip through.

So reheat the neck of doll and push wooden ring back in place while vinyl still hot and soft. allow to cool then drop lopp back through neck and pull elastic down inside to attache firstv one leg and then the second, then do same with arms attaching at sides. then your doll should be nice and steady but make sure it's not too tight or you will get neck caving and thats another job!

The red handled tool closes the metal clips around the elastic stopping it moving, i find this easier than having to tie the elastic together. The elastic shown was sent to me by a lovely lady in US, who I believe bought it for a dollar in walmart ?  she passed it to Dawn at a festival and Dawn gave it to me at a chat n snap, its says bungee on the label. the loop shows you how the clips work and the long dirty white eklastic came out of Valentine , so was used to hold all four of the limbs.

The slim nosed pliers are useful for getting hold of the wires and pulling out of the body but must be care not to cut through. Plus sometimes you need to widen the hooks to get the old elastic out.

Hope thats helpful to anyone needing to restring a doll and remember you can use the Gotz style on a trendon but you need to make sure you work out right length of elastic needed.

So elsewhere on the doll front, another two doll sales and none have arrived... yes it is a mircle !! It may not last.... since I have bid on a doll that ends later today....lol

I did however buy a pair of shoes off Rosie Bloom only to find I have exactly that colour already, so I will have added them to my sales age for cost sometime today.

I have now started looking at just how many Schoenhut dolls I need and will be selling off a few more and just keeping a small core of these dolls. 

These are the first up for adoption , although Merry at the back, the sleeping eyed girl is staying.

I'm planning on taking some group photos of the Schoenhuts, if I can find the right place for them all to stand safely ! If they fall on their faces, thats a lot of chipped paintwork! and damaged dolls ! Then it's finding them space in the studio , so that I can begin to enjoy using them again. 

I want to get all the dolls housed by August , so that I can start to do more doll stories or photography.

I still have a little too much stuff to find homes for in the studio , so may have to start selling off a few props etc.

Well on that note I will wish you all a happy healthy week ahead .

Dee