The Disembodied Heads

First of all, thank you to everyone who weighed in on the fate of Teresa's eyes!  I added the results of that poll (and the decision I made) to the original post.

I'm currently hard at work on a new group of dolls.  There will be seven dolls total in this collection, and the first few of those should be ready for sale in the next week or so.  I'm really excited about this group!  I started working on most of these girls after I started this blog, so I'll have consistent before and after pictures (finally!).

In the meantime, I have two very special girls to share with you today!  I've been working on these two for a while, so I don't have pictures of every step, but--once again--a generous eBay seller gave me permission to use her photos of the original dolls...or in this case, the original heads:

Re-pour Clementine head, picture courtesy of az-duo on eBay.

An Eye Enquiry

I've been debating back and forth about something and thought that perhaps you could help me!

Here's my dilemma: I have a 2010 Teresa in my next group of dolls to restore.  She's lovely and I want to do her justice.  My rule of thumb with post-Denver My Twinn dolls is to never use acrylic eyes on them.  Why?  Because I suspect that the lower quality of vinyl used after 2002 reacts poorly with the plastics in the eyes.  I have no idea if this is true, but it's my current reasoning for why so many of the newer My Twinn dolls have faded eyes.  It could just be that the eyes themselves are of poor quality, of course.

This Teresa's original eyes look good now, though.  They're large and dark and there's no option on the market that looks just like them.  Maybe her right eye is slightly lighter?  Ahh!  So, the question is: should I replace perfectly good acrylic eyes with silicone or glass (so that the eyes never fade), or just leave things as they are (which may--or may not--result in faded eyes at some point in the future)?  Please comment or share your opinion in the poll to the right!  THANK YOU!!

What to do?

Lost Finger Lenora

Ok, this is it!  This is the last doll in my first series of dolls who will be sold in turtleneck dresses from Doll Clothes by Carole!  The next group is a bit smaller and will be wearing lovely, colorful outfits that are perfect for summer.

Anyone who used to read Toy Box Philosopher might remember The Lenora Saga, featuring this poor doll with massive stains and a missing little finger:

My well-loved Denver-era My Twinn Lenora.

How to Ruin Pearl

I've been working on this doll for so long, I can't even remember when I first bought her.  It was some time in mid 2018.  She's a Denver-era Pearl, so she was ridiculously expensive on eBay, but at the time I'd never seen a Pearl doll in person before and really wanted to get my hands on one.  She reminds me of someone I love.

Sadly, since I've had her around for so long, I only have this screen shot from her auction as a glimpse of how she looked when she first came to my house:

Denver-era My Twinn Pearl.

A New Look for Cookie

First things first: I apologize for not enabling comments on this site sooner.  I thought it would be automatic, but I actually had to go and chance a bunch of settings.  I've had a few people message me through Etsy with wonderful tips and suggestions, and I'd love to be able to share that kind of information right here for everyone to see.  Now that should be possible.

Also, I'm nearing the end of my first wave of dolls.  I have a sweet Cookie to show you today and then just one more doll to sell before I start fixing up a new batch of girls (with new outfits!). 

This 1997 Cookie is a doll I was working on way back in the Toy Box Philosopher days.  I never thought I would sell her, but I need to make some tough choices to get my doll room down to a reasonable number of inhabitants.

The Cookie face isn't ridiculously rare, but it's much harder to find than the faces I've featured on this blog so far.  In addition, this Cookie has the very pale skin tone, which can be elusive.

The only downside to this Cookie is that she came to me in pretty bad shape, with holes in her cloth body, a thinning wig, fading eyes, missing eyelashes, a loose arm, a lot of stains, and a lot of dirt!  She even had dirt wedged into her eye sockets.  I still thought she was adorable, though:

1997 My Twinn Cookie.