Progress...

I was hoping I would be further along in my progress right now, but life has been busy and I've got way too many projects going at once!  But I thought I'd check in and let you see how it's going so far.

Here is my celluloid head, all glued back together.  You can definitely see the cracks.

She is a turtle mark, probably made in the 1950's.

Even though all the pieces glued together well, there are still cracks because a lot of the celluloid just crumbled into dust.

This is her original, human hair wig.

While I was starting to putty and sand the celluloid head, I also decided to work on this little cutie I got for free in a lot.  She has legs...they're just not in the picture.  She's about 20" tall, unmarked, and all compo.  From my research, I believe she is "Toddlin' Sue" by Ideal.  

She was in really rough shape.  Lots of crazing, and a crack in her chin.

The split in the back of her head was probably the worst.

Her side seams were splitting apart, along with her crotch area.  There is remnant of old tape adhesive across her belly where somebody tried to keep her together.

Flaking compo on her head

She still has most of her pretty eyelashes, though!

I took this close up photo of her eyes so I could have a reference of how her eyebrows and eyelashes are supposed to look when I repaint her.

Same thing...another reference photo for later of her lips

Back to my celluloid...here she is after I puttied and sanded down all the cracks.

Here are her replaced eyelashes I made!

This is before her eyelashes...a reference photo of her brows and lashes. In case I didn't mention it before, she has "flirty" eyes! The move side to side, as well as open and close.

After puttying and sanding the top of Toddlin' Sue's head.  I tried to engrave some "curl" swirls in it so it might blend better with the rest of her hair once painted.

Huge head split all puttied and sanded!  I put a piece of duct tape along the inside of the crack so that the wet putty wouldn't fall directly into her head and have some support while it dried.

Yes, she still has eyes!  They are just covered with paper so that they'll be protected when I start painting her head.

Miss Celluloid has her eyes papered over as well.

Once I had the heads sanded smooth, I sprayed them both this:

I bought it at my neighborhood Walmart for about $5.  It was recommended by another doll restorer, which is why I got it.  It's supposed to provide a nice sealant/base for the paint.  We'll see.  Honestly, I'm little afraid to start the painting.  My husband bought me an airbrush and hobby compressor last year for this very purpose, and it's a little intimidating.  But I've been practicing with it on paper, so I think I'm getting the hang of it.  I'm actually going to start with repainting Toddlin' Sue's arms, since I don't think I can mess those up too badly.  Wish me luck!