Nosedive Nora

Now that Tula has her new home, it's time to share the last Unicorn Twinn so that all of these cute girls can move out!  I really love having this happy, colorful bunch in the house, but I think that a collection of eight dolls was too much!  I'll be focusing on smaller groups in the weeks to come.

The last girl in the group has the Allison face mold, which is not a face I've ever shown on this blog before.  It's not generally considered a rare face, as far as I know, but I don't see it very often.  In fact, I've only ever had two Allison dolls in my house: this one and another that I'm keeping in my personal collection.

1997 My Twinn doll with the Allison face.

I decided to name this doll Nora because I think she looks like a Nora.  The name just called out to me when I looked at her face.  The problem with this name is that there's another My Twinn face that is officially known as Nora.  The actual Nora face is extremely rare, though (I've never seen it), and so perhaps that will make this Nora's name less confusing.

Still, I will start with a disclaimer: this doll does NOT have the actual My Twinn Nora face.

I like the Allison face mold quite a bit.  It's distinct from the other molds because of the thin-lipped smile and the squinty, asymmetric eyes:

Nora came to me in pretty bad shape, though.  She was extremely dirty, with a stain-covered cloth torso and filthy vinyl parts:

Also, Nora had the elastic-strung ankle joints that often come with these white-bodied dolls.  

Henna has elastic ankles, too, but she can stand up on her own fairly well.  Nora, on the other hand, could not stand up well.  She kept toppling over onto her face--hence the "nosedive Nora" nickname.

Nora's original wig was a mess and had been trimmed in a few places by a former owner.

The stains on her body were extensive, but she didn't actually smell bad:

She also had a lot of scuffs and dark marks on her vinyl limbs:

One of the fascinating things about Nora is that her original eyes had faded to dark purple!  I'd never seen anything quite like this before:

Nora also had a huge chip on the tip of her nose...perhaps because her loose ankles were always causing nosedives!

You can see how dirty her face was in these pictures, too.  And underneath some of that dirt, she had a very light sprinkling of faded freckles.

I removed Nora's wig, separated her head from her body, and took the head into my workshop.

Here's a closer look at one of the eyes.  I think they must have been brown at one time?

And here's a closer look at the big scuff on her nose:

She had some weird white stuff in her mouth, too, almost like a caterpillar had made a cocoon there at one point:

I popped out the old eyes, removed the eyelash fragments, and gave the head a thorough washing:

Next, I stripped away the old (slightly orange) face paint, and applied a bit of Remove-Zit to a stubborn red stain at the top of Nora's lip:

Once the head was stain-free and very clean, I started sanding the scuff on her nose.  This took quite a while since the scuff was deep.

The sanding reduced the scuff considerably, but you can still see a tiny little mark if you look really close:

I had some new blue acrylic eyes picked out especially for Nora, but I could not get them into her head!  I guess her eye sockets are smaller than some of the other molds?  This was incredibly frustrating.  I've had such bad luck with eyes lately.

Instead, I tried these very dark Lauscha glass eyes (glass eyes are super easy to install):

Hm.

I left these eyes in place for a few days, but could not get used to them. The color is really dark, and the irises are too big.  I felt like they made Nora look like an alien (and everyone in my household agreed).

So, I went back to the eyes I had originally picked for Nora.  This time I heated her head for a really long time, and I used as much finger strength as I could muster....and it worked!  The eyes finally went into place (and I didn't scratch them in the process).  Phew!

These are Eyeco A223 acrylic eyes:

Eyeco A223 eyes.

Aren't they pretty?  This is a new color for me.

The light eyes really brighten Nora's face, and all of the alien resemblance is gone.  I was very happy with this result!

I painted Nora's eyebrows next:

And then I gave her some new blush and lip color:

I also gave her a light sprinkling of freckles, in deference to her original face paint:

While I was working on Nora's head, I was also spot-cleaning her body.  I wiped the cloth torso down with a diluted bleach solution, let the fabric dry, and then wiped it down a second time.  This process got rid of all of the stains.  

Once the bleach was dry, I spritzed the fabric with De-Stinker (a Twin Pines of Maine product designed to remove odors from dolls).  I did this more to get rid of the bleach smell than because of any odors on the original body.

Once the De-Stinker had dried for several days, I re-attached Nora's head to her body and gave her a new wig and some new eyelashes.  Here she is:

The body looked nice and clean and had no odor:

I dressed Nora in the last of the unicorn outfits.  This outfit doesn't have as much color as some of the other ensembles, but I like the delicate simplicity of it:

The headband has a beautiful golden horn accented with muted flowers in peach, pink, yellow, and green:

The unicorn decal has a few cracks and imperfections in it, but the horn is painted glittery gold!

I love the flowing, full skirt in this outfit, but the waistband was way too loose for Nora's skinny 1997 body!

Oh, dear.

I gave Nora some underpants to try and increase the width of her waist, but that didn't help very much.

I chose white tights and white boots to go along with the simplicity of this outfit:

The wig I chose for Nora is a short, curly wig from Exquisite Doll Designs.  This shop is no longer making 13" wigs, so it's a bit of a rare find:

I love the color mix and the short length of this wig, but I just couldn't seem to control the curls and make the hair look good.

Meh.

Maybe you can sense that I wasn't too thrilled with this doll.  Part of the problem was that Nora would not stand up on her own.  Those pesky loose ankles were driving me nuts--even with the boots.  Also, it was crazy-hot here in Maine, with humidity in the high 90s, so any hassles with posing and photography were magnified by ten.

The droopy skirt, the ill-behaved wig, the loose ankles...I kept trying to ignore all of these things and press onward, but then I encountered something really icky.  I was adjusting Nora's shirt and noticed that her cloth torso was sticky.  Yuk!  The cloth felt wet and smelled like vinegar again.  It was almost as if the De-Stinker (which is vinegar-based) was freshly applied and had never dried.

I suppose it was the extreme humidity that caused this regression?  Whatever it was, I found it totally gross and unacceptable.

I almost scrapped the whole project at this point, but then I pulled myself together.

I took Nora back into my workshop and gave her a new body...and a new wig.  Here's the new Nora:

This body is from 2011 and is in excellent condition.  The vinyl also matches Nora's head almost perfectly.  

It felt like it was meant to be.

The new wig I chose for Nora is straight and extremely easy to brush and style (yay!):

This is a special-order wig from Doll of a Kind and, as far as I know, there are only four of them in existence in this size (the four I ordered).

I realized at this point that I had forgotten to close Nora's neck with a cable tie, so I rushed her back into my workshop and got that taken care of:

I also hand-washed Nora's unicorn shirt and tights--just in case any of the icky vinegar stuff had seeped into them.

Here's Nora, take two!

Now she isn't sticky (or stinky!), she stands really well on her own, and her hair is very fun to play with!

The skirt also fits much better now, although the sleeves of the shirt are a bit short.

The humidity still hadn't broken when I was taking these pictures, but it was much easier to have fun with this sweet girl!

I like how she looks with the headband set into her hair without disrupting the hairstyle at all:

If the headband is used to pull the hair back, it exposes the caramel-colored sections of the wig and gives Nora a very different look!

I like how the lighter hair in this wig pairs with the gold in the unicorn horns.

I also tried styling the hair with little clips, which showcases yet another arrangement of hair shades: 

I removed the headband for a while so that you can appreciate this wig on its own.

This wig is like a darker version of the Caramel Latte wig from Doll of a Kind that I love so much.

It has a beautiful, unusual mix of dark brown and caramel blonde:

Exposing different parts of the wig can really change Nora's appearance, so I had to take several portrait pictures before I decided which one would be best for the GIF.

Should some of the blonde strands peek out, or not?

In the end, I like how Nora looks with the darkest hair framing her face, like this:

Here's her comparison GIF:

Here are a few more photos showing off Nora and her wig from different angles:

I took Nora outside for a few shots in the natural light.  I think she liked being on the dry safety of the deck the best:

She could twirl around and show off her lovely, full skirt!

I also had Nora stand near the woods for a few photos, and the darker background really made her eyes shine:

Oh, man. This doll gave me some battles!  I was so frustrated with her about a week ago, but all she needed was a body that could support her.  I think Nora has a sweet, kind-looking expression.  I picture her as being a calm, maternal presence in this group of unicorn rascals, with her own quiet sense of fun.  She was worth all of the hassle.

I will exclude Nora's original body from my list of work steps, simply because the old body is no longer relevant.

Here's a summary of the work that was done on Nora:

-her head was removed from her old body

-her face was thoroughly cleaned and all of the old paint was stripped away

-her old eyes were removed

-a gash on her nose was sanded down

-a stain on her lip was reduced with Remove-Zit

-her face was sealed with Mr. Super Clear

-she was given new acrylic eyes from Eyeco

-her face was repainted, including eyebrows, lips, blush, and light freckles

-she was given new eyelashes

-she was given a new custom wig from Doll of a Kind

-her head was attached to a non-Denver (2011) body with matching vinyl

-she is dressed in an outfit from Fairy Tale Blessings that includes a shirt, skirt, and unicorn headband.  I have added white tights and white boots to the ensemble

Nora has a Denver-era head on a non-Denver body. This will make it hard to determine her manufacturing date in the future--although experienced collectors can tell Denver vinyl on sight.  She also has a mark/indentation on the tip of her nose from where the scuff used to be.  Last of all, she has a faint, shiny line along her left cheek that I was not aware of until I took her out into the sunshine.

Nora has sold.  Thank you!