Now Playing: "Beverly Hills Cop" - another DVD from the pawn shop sale
Current Mood : Happy and full of cookies !
I don't care what the calendar says, I say we're in winter now ! Drizzy, miserably cold day ‘round here, with more wintry-type weather expected tomorrow. It was a good day to stay in, clean the kitchen, do another two loads of laundry, and make cookies and popcorn !
That was basically my day. I even got a sofa snooze in, for two hours. I rarely dream, but I did during my nap - of a yard sale in somebody's house ! The seller had so many wonderful doll things for sale sooo cheap. Stuff I've never seen before, she had custom-made and it was all perfect and most of it was inexpensive...I spent most of the dream trying to get as much possible for the $18.79 that's in Checking right now. One doll case was overflowing with 1600-series outfits, but for some reason, it was $1200. The rest of the stuff - 70s era cases, wonderful furniture, beautiful like-new outfits...I was almost disappointed to come out of that dream ! Very few dolls in the dream, though.
In between cookie batches, I boiled a small pot of water and partially undressed the new Han doll. Still haven't decided on his name, but your ‘Henry' suggestion is in the running, Manda ! Beloved Hubby thought ‘Harris' sounded better than Harrison, and it does have a certain charm. I just can't make up my mind.
So I boiled his hands. Turns out they are soft vinyl after all, but they took a lot of effort to reshape. Here's a before & after shot :
Reshaping doll limbs is fairly easy. Boil a pot of water deep enough to submerge the part you want changed - hand, elbow, etc. Have a cold washcloth ready to go. Undress and carefully plunge the hand, arm, whatever in the boiling water for 15 to 30 seconds. Avoid resting any part of the doll or you on the hot pot ! Pull from the water, and immediately place in the cold cloth, then gently ease the hot just-boiled part into the shape you prefer. Be careful to not burn your doll or you ! Hold the cold cloth onto the reshaped piece until there's no more heat in it. If it didn't bend enough, re-submerge. If you don't like how it looks when the bending is done, re-submerge. Each additional dip in the hot water will return the piece to its original shape, but holding it in longer will soften it up more, so the next reshape will hopefully be more of what you want. It may take several tries, but patience and holding tight is the key. Oh, and if you've got the right one where you want it, make sure it's as far from the pot as possible when you go to shape the left !
Of course, practice with a junker doll first. You don't wanna wreck an expensive or special doll until you've got some experience under your belt, and heck, you've really got no reason to trust me anyway ! (smile) You can see how it worked with ole H up there, and that took about five boils for each hand. It's very thick vinyl, which is why it seemed more like plastic to me. Those Power Team dudes I practiced on so long ago only took about five minutes per hand. H over there took about a half hour.
I've checked in on him a few times since the photos were taken. While his hands do tend to curl back up a bit, they're still in the same shape as the ‘after' one. I had to shape them flatter than I wanted, due to that stubborn re-curling. I'll pronounce it a done deal tomorrow morning. I always like to see how things ‘cure' during the night.
His outfit really is amazing. All the tiny details - the never-explained loops on the vest's back, and the tiny pockets, the sharp pleats, the shirt collar - are there. Sewing's a bit hit-or-miss, with one sleeve matching perfectly, the other off about a quarter-inch. But it fits him great ! I still can't believe how lucky I was to find him in such fantastic shape !
Now, if I can just get him a name...
