A Porcelain Adventure (Part 1)

Ok I'm just gonna say it. Porcelain dolls scare me. They disturb me a bit actually. When I tell people that I collect dolls, they immediately think that I collect porcelain dolls and they kind of like back up a bit. There's nothing wrong with these types of dolls but they have had a history of creeping people out. I don't know why I don't really like them, I think that I've just seen movies and heard stories about them and they're scary. So you're probably wondering how on earth did I manage to get one of these in my possession and not be like crying? Well let me tell you!

So my mum and I went to a local recycling centre (like a op/thrift shop. But massive!) And after  looking around I headed over to the toy section to go see if there were any toys that I could fix up. As I was walking down the aisle a box caught my eye, it was full of dolls, porcelain dolls. I faced my fears walked over to it and on the top of the pile was just a big mess of hair. And I was like "Woah ok that's a lot of hair" And i reached down and found the doll who owned this mass of hair and she was so beautiful! She looked nothing like those scary ones I had imagined. Her eyes were incredible and I couldn't pass her up! I also love me some long hair so that was a bonus :) Then I saw a head that had perfect curls on it, and she too had such a cute little face and so I asked my mum if I could buy them and she said yes! She said it would be a good challenge for me to try fix up.

So in this picture this was both of them before I dealt with them. Today I'll be showing you the fixing up of the doll on the left and the one on the right another day :) 

(ALL THE 'BEFORE' PICS WERE TAKEN ON MY PHONE SO APOLOGISES ABOUT THE QUALITY!)

They have cute outfits right?!

Ok so once I actually tried to brush her hair, that's when I realised that we are gonna have a problem.  Her hair went way past her feet, about 20cm. That's a lot of hair. I was thinking that she was a custom because I've seen a lot of custom dolls who have wigs with totally out of proportion hair. So it actually took me, no jokes, a solid hour and a half of brushing and wetting to get it barely containable. She malted quite a bit (gross I know) and the ball of hair afterwards was larger than my fist. I was finally able to get it into a braid.

As you can see her wig is really think around her head and I wasn't liking way it was sitting around her skull, so finding a hairstyle that would work was quite difficult.  Also I have no idea whats going on in the boobage department. I removed her dress and burst out laughing when I saw these large foam blobs on her chest. My parents did too! (Immature i know, bear with us guys!!) The other doll is just nicely curved but I guess they decided they wanted legit boobs for this doll? I don't know so we try to keep the clothes on from now on >.<

And I found the answer to our hair situation. She's a Rapunzel doll. Excessive hair is just a fabulous trait of hers. 

 So after I sorted the hair out It was time to sort put her skin. I was actually really nervous about cleaning her skin because all the things I'd read on the internet said that porcelain dolls are extremely delicate, rardy ra! And that you need strange chemicals to clean there skin and stuff etc.. And so I just ended up getting a warm cloth and rubbing it on her skin. She had black marks on her face and limbs which were very unattractive. But amazingly they came right of after a bit of scrubbing!! She was way easier to clean then some of my vinyl dolls! 

Then after I got the stains out of her dress, she had these like tea stains on her dress, she was ready for her hair to be cut and styled. I decided that I wanted to keep her hair looking really long because I think that's what makes her unique. But I cannot handle it to, to long. So I ended up shopping of about 30cm. That's a lot. My room needed a good vacuum afterwards. 

This is the finished product =)

Her hair looks so cool! How the light is shining through! Mwah beautiful! 

So she's gonna be my little celtic porcelain. I just get the Celtic vibe from her (I think its the green dress) .Her hair has got a little celtic accent in it :) Also I've named her Genevieve.

Sorry about the long post but i hope you enjoyed it, do you have any porcelain dolls??

-Lydia