Quick Look: Some Doll Restorations

I know I published a review recently, but I wanted to squeeze in one more little thing before the end of the month.  This'll give me a chance to slow down and chat a little, which feels hard during a conventional review.  Those get long enough as it is.

First of all, as I'm sure you noticed, I'm back to the grey backdrop.  White was interesting.  The photos I took of Cupid Asteria look nice and clean for the most part, but I had to turn the exposure on my camera way up to keep everything from being dark and drab.  Even then, the background looks light grey in most pictures.  Light grey is fine, but I don't understand how professional photographers get that super-white background!  I couldn't do it with my current set-up.  Another thing is that I feel like colors don't pop against white like they do with grey.  Furthermore, every single piece of dust and glitter was really obvious.  So while the grey gives me headaches sometimes, I guess it's the best option for now...so I'll stop complaining.

Also, for whatever it's worth, we've put the house hunt on hold.  It feels like a bad time to move for many reasons--mostly because everything is so expensive.  It's safer to hunker down and appreciate the roof over our heads and all of the good things that New Jersey has to offer.  It'll certainly be easier to keep blogging if I'm not packing up my entire house again!  And I've gotten back into painting dolls, so it'd be a shame to uproot that operation just as I'm gaining some traction.  

In fact, painting dolls is what I want to talk about today!  There are four dolls that I've been working on for the last few weeks, and I'd love to share them with you.  Everybody loves a good makeover, right?

My Twinn Kate from 2011...who desperately needs a makeover.

As some of you know, while I was taking as break from doll reviews back between 2019 and 2020, I was actively painting and restoring old My Twinns.  I even had a blog to show off my work, called The My Twinn Project Shop.  Here's one of my favorite dolls from that blog:

Meg from my Little Women series.

The Little Women series was such a fun project.  I got to work alongside an incredibly talented seamstress and friend, Rebecca.  Her gorgeous, meticulous outfits made the dolls come alive!  And Meg looks pretty great against a white background, doesn't she?  Argh!  But I said I wouldn't complain about backdrops anymore, so I won't.

Anyway, my love for painting My Twinn dolls originated with an experiment that I did right here on TBP back in 2016.  It was called The My Twinn Project.  In that series of posts, I tried my hand at restoring some My Twinns...with zero previous experience.  It was such a fun challenge, and it ignited a new hobby that has persisted for a decade so far.

My biggest hurdle in that original project series was restoring this glue-covered, dinged-up Denver Tasha:

This is how she came out:

I still have her in my collection.

It's interesting to go back and read about my experience with those first few dolls.  I know so much more about repainting and restoring now!  I feel like Tasha could use a makeover of her makeover, but she's also an interesting piece of my personal history, so I'll probably leave her alone.  Maybe slap on some sealant.

Anyway, it's been three years since I repainted a My Twinn at this point.  I've been way too busy with the blog, my job, and all of my foster animals.  Cinderella was the last doll I worked on, and that was way back in 2023:

A month or so ago, when I was doing inventory, I realized two things: first of all, I miss the artistic outlet of painting dolls.  Also, I have a ton of leftover supplies that are really great.  I probably have 25 My Twinn dolls that still need work, and more than enough eyes, eyelashes, outfits, and wigs to go around.

So, I decided to start doing restorations again.  But I started out slowly.  In fact, I didn't even start out with a My Twinn doll.  I got my feet wet by fixing up an old My Life As girl: 

My Life As a Scientist.

I learned about this particular doll when I was writing the My Life As advent calendar review this past December.  I thought her face was more appealing than the dolls on the market now, including my redheaded Peyton:

My Life As Peyton.

I mean, Peyton is cute, but I like the relaxed features on the Scientist doll more.  Or maybe I just like that she's a scientist?

My Life As a Scientist is discontinued, I believe, and so I had to hunt for her on eBay.  The only listing I could find was for a used doll who'd seen better days:

What kind of experiment is she running??

Her outfit actually arrived in great shape, but her hair was a different story:

Something with electricity, I bet.

This doll should not wear her hair in ponytails.  Look at all of the exposed scalp!

That's bad, even for a mad scientist.

Despite the crazy hair, she didn't actually need a lot of work.  I cleaned her limbs and face with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, and then boil-washed her hair.  I also laundered her white lab coat because it had gotten dusty.  The only part of her outfit that was missing was her shoes, so I stole a pair from an Our Generation pack.

This is how she looks now:

Her hair is a little flat, but it has some nice layering at the ends:

I adore her dress.  It's dark blue with a glittery pink sash and little science symbols everywhere:

The white lab coat and name tag lanyard complete the look:

The lanyard ribbon has periodic table elements on it, which is very clever:

The name tag doesn't have an actual name, which is too bad.  And it's expired.

There's a colorful molecule on the left side of the lab coat, with a triangular section at the top:

The biology teacher in me wanted to try and figure out what this molecule is supposed to be, based on the number of bonds that each atom is forming.  But the bonding isn't consistent across atoms of the same color, so I fear it's not a real thing.

If the designers had wanted a real molecule with a triangular shape, they could have gone with cyclopropane, which is pretty cute-looking:

This doll originally came with a bunch of science accessories, including a pair of safety glasses.  Since I don't have any extra safety glasses lying around, I substituted the awesome red glasses from the My Life As advent calendar:

Now she looks ready to do some science:

Nothing with electricity, though.

That wasn't a very high-intensity restoration project, but it certainly got me in the mood to do something more ambitious.  So, I dug into the My Twinn stash.

Most of the My Twinn dolls that I have on hand are from the Denver era (before 2003).  But I also have a few non-Denver dolls that I picked up for one reason or another.  I figured it would be a good idea to start with these less-valuable dolls while I get my skills back up to speed.

My first victim is from 2009 and has the Ariel face mold:

2009 My Twinn Ariel.

You can tell the year she was made by looking at the tag on the side of her cloth body:

This doll was in rough shape, but her torso is actually clean and relatively free of snags, which is rare:

Here's a closer look:

She had a bunch of scuffs on her arms and legs, but these are usually pretty easy to remove:

She was well loved.

The doll's head was a mess.  She didn't even look like an Ariel to me.  In my records, where I try to keep track of all the dolls I own, I referred to this one as "Strange Ariel:"

Poor Strange Ariel.

Her hair was a mess, her eyes had faded to a ghoulish pink, and she had a white substance (toothpaste?) jammed into the crevices around her nose and mouth:

I used to put toothpaste on my dolls when I was little...

I bought her because of her skin tone, though.  She has a nice medium complexion that can be hard to find.

It's extremely difficult to get the heads off of dolls from this time period.  The glue is tough and hard to peel away--even after prolonged exposure to heat.  I guess that's good for durability, but bad for restoration.  And bad for my fingers.

After some effort, I managed to pull Strange Ariel's head off.  I stripped away all of her factory paint (and toothpaste), washed the vinyl thoroughly, and then put in some new eyes:

She can see again!

I have a good stash of eyes, but didn't want to use any of my really good ones on this practice doll.  The pair I chose are Pabol eyes, I believe.  These aren't my favorites because they don't have a lot of depth.  I like the color, though, and there's nice iris detail.

Next, I painted her face with acrylics:

Um...I might have gone a bit overboard with those eyebrows.  I forgot my subtle touch, I guess.

I chose a short, silky wig for this girl and dressed her in some used My Twinn overalls.  Here's the finished doll:

The short wig was a huge pain to put on.  It's angled on the sides, so not at all forgiving.  Any kind of lopsidedness is painfully obvious.  So while I think short hair looks really cute on these dolls, it's not something I'm going to choose very often.

There aren't a lot of short wigs available for My Twinn dolls anyway.  And I'm not very good at cutting hair.

I need a better name for Strange Ariel, if you have any suggestions:

I don't feel strange anymore!

Here's a GIF of her transformation:

She might not be my best work, but she's certainly cuter than when I found her.

The next doll is similar in many ways.  She has a medium skin tone, short brown hair, and zombie-like eyes:

Grrr....Brains...

She's from a little bit later, in 2011:

This doll has snagging on her back:

And she has the Kate face mold:

Look at the placement of her wig, though:

Talk about unforgiving.

I have to believe that somebody tried to re-glue this wig at some point, because if I'd gotten something so obviously crooked directly from the My Twinn factory, I'd have sent it right back.

The first thing I did was take that crooked wig off.  I feel like every other My Twinn doll I own has that same color wig, and I'm frankly sick of it.  Then I took the whole head off--chiseling away the glue the same way I did with the 2009 doll.

This girl's eyes were in even worse shape than Strange Ariel's.  Both of them had gone completely pink.  She also had some scuffing on her face and very faint, uneven eyebrows:

Someone was phoning it in with this doll.

My Twinn dolls from this time period tend to have pencil marks on their heads that I find interesting:

It says "26-8-2" at the top, but I have no idea what that means.  In the middle, it says "ODBL," which is the hair color (dark blonde).  At the bottom is the eye color, T40, which is a medium-dark brown.  So at least we know what color her eyes used to be!

I scrubbed her face clean, gave her some new dark brown eyes from Eyeco, and painted new eyebrows:

I restrained myself with the eyebrows this time.

Then I gave her rosy cheeks and lips, and no freckles:

Which required even more restraint.

She got another one of my less-than-favorite wigs.  This is a long, dark brown Monique wig with lots of wavy curls.  The curly hair gets floofy and hard to manage if you brush it, so I only ever finger-comb these wigs:

Live and learn.

Kate is wearing a pair of dark blue velour overalls from My Twinn.  I was in an overall mood with these dolls for some reason.  Maybe because I was trying to get rid of some overalls?

I feel like this doll needs a name other than Kate, especially because the third doll that I restored also has the Kate mold.  For now I guess she's Kate #1, but I'll gladly take suggestions.  All I can think of is Jasmine:

The Kate mold is one of my favorites to paint.  I love that cute little smile:

Here's a GIF of Kate #1 before and after:

It's so rewarding to restore dolls with eyes that have faded.  No matter how the repaint turns out, the doll always looks better with new eyes!  And straightening the hairline helped a lot, too.

The third doll that I worked on is a very pale Kate who's also from 2011:

She has a dent in her waist, probably from wearing pants that were too tight for over a decade.  But her back is mostly free of snags:

This doll has pink eyes and faint eyebrows, just like Kate #1:

And that same hair color.

I wrestled her head off and took her to my work station for a better look:

Here are the markings on her head:

2-1-10 could be a date, but 2010 was before this doll was made.  She has the same dark blonde hair color (ODBL) as Kate #1, and her eyes are (or used to be) A05, which is very light blue.

I stripped the factory paint, removed the faded eyes, and gave Kate #2 a thorough wash:

I replaced her eyes with a pair of medium brown Eyeco eyes:

I knew I wanted to give this girl a lot of freckles, because I need practice doing freckles.  So I painted her face with high color and raised auburn eyebrows:

She looks expectant!

And then I went nuts with the freckles!

Maybe she looks a little stressed.

I think the freckles are a bit too small, or too dark?  I'm not sure.  They don't look quite right to me.  I think it's because I lost my favorite freckle brush.  I'll have to figure something else out.

I gave Katie another one of my wavy Monique wigs, this time in bright red, and dressed her in yet another My Twinn overall set:

The freckles look somewhat better with the wig in place:

Here's a GIF of Katie's transformation:

I think she's my favorite of the three, mostly because she's a redhead.  And I've always liked this particular My Twinn outfit.  I don't tend to like most of the overalls, but this set is pretty:

Bottom line?  It's great to be painting and restoring again!  I'd forgotten how satisfying it is.  It might take me a few more attempts before I'm up to speed, but a lot of the techniques came back faster than I expected.

I have some really nice, rare My Twinns to work on, and some beautiful outfits that I've been hoarding for a long time.  For example, I've always wanted to create a Merida doll, and now I have the wig and the outfit to make that happen.  I also have a few more historical dresses in my stash that I can't wait to use, in addition to a vast supply of authentic My Twinn clothing.  And I have about 25 of those smaller My Way Kids to work on, too.  So it'll be a long time before I run out of dolls.

I hope you enjoyed seeing these makeovers!  And maybe you won't mind if I interrupt the flow of reviews every now and then to show you more of my creations.  In the meantime, let me know if you can think of any good names for these four girls!  They're all ready for a new start.