The first phase of this project was to take all the dolls apart and wash them thoroughly. First, I used a magic eraser to remove surface dirt. Then, I took a filing block to remove any glue or other wig residue that was left on the dolls' heads. I finished up by washing the heads in warm soapy water then leaving them to dry.
While the heads were drying, I went on to work on cleaning up the bodies. Since most of these dolls are several years old, their bodies had experienced a lot of staining. I was able to remove some of the stains with a magic eraser, but some bodies have a few deeper stains I can't get rid of. Oh well. As long as the stains aren't visible when the doll is wearing clothes I don't really mind.
A few of the bodies had some alterations that I also wanted to remove. I had used nail decals as tattoos and I decided to remove these with an X-Acto knife. One of the bodies also had a painted and sealed tattoo that I had to remove by sanding. Here is the before and after.
On another body, there was residue from a sealant I had used. I didn't use it correctly (13 year old me wasn't keen on reading instructions) and so it dried patchy and attracted dirt and dust. I tried washing it off but it was stubbornly stuck on the body. I had to sand the whole thing to remove it. So tedious! Here's what it looked like before. You can kind of see the residue on the vinyl.
That's it for this update. Some of you probably find it a bit boring, but I really like blogging so I try to find anything I can to write about, heheh. I'm working on putting my Amarri and Merl back together now. Seeing all these dolls again makes me want to start Blink again. Hmm.....Well, have a great week everyone!
