Resetting Sleep Eyes

This is a subject that is unnerving to many collectors. I hope this tutorial will give you the confidence you need to “do-it-yourself”. Because truly, all you need is a little guidance and a little confidence. Read the entire tutorial and get everything you will need ready and at hand.

Here are the items that I use to reset eyes: Plaster of Paris, vaseline, wax, a towel, a washcloth, needlenose pliers or metal hook, a toothpick or tiny paint brush, a plastic bowl that will fit the doll head, and a small bowl to serve several purposes.

You may want to remove the head from the body. This is entirely optional, but depending on the size of the doll it is usually easier to handle just the head rather than the entire doll.

First of all, you will need to determine your scope of work:

* Are the eyes still in place, but broken or poorly set? You will need to completely remove both sides of the plaster and begin new.

* Has just one of the plaster eye sockets (holding the eyes in place) fallen out? You have to make a choice. You may remove the remaining plaster socket and begin new. OR you may leave it in place and simply plaster the other side. Gently place the eyes into the remaining socket and look at the doll’s face. Check to see that the fit is good and the eyes line up nicely. If so, then leave the remaining plaster in place and just re-plaster one side. On our model, we will leave the one remaining plaster in place.

Step One: IF NECCESARY - REMOVE THE OLD PLASTER:

You will need: a plastic bowl and patience.

Place the doll’s head upside down into the plastic bowl. If you do not have a plastic bowl, you can line a glass bowl with a washcloth. Add enough water so that the eye plaster is completely covered. At this point patience is the key, as you wait for the water to work its magic. You are not waiting for the plaster to totally dissolve. If the head is large enough, you can occasionally reach inside with your fingers and apply light pressure to the plaster. If the head is tiny, the eraser on the end of a pencil will work well instead of your fingers. The plaster will eventually slide right off in one piece.

While you are soaking out the old eye plaster, be sure to keep your eyes rocker in a safe and secure place.

Step Two: ALIGNING THE EYES

You will need: Vaseline, a thick dry towel, wax, a small glass bowl, and a toothpick (or a tiny paintbrush).

Place the head face down on a towel. Arrange the towel so that the head will be level and is firmly supported. Those areas of the eyes and rocker that will be covered with plaster should be coated with Vaseline. The Vaseline will help create the space for the “eye sockets” so that the rocker can swing smoothly. Now take your eye rocker and place it inside the doll’s head over the open eye cuts.

This head has a usable plaster socket remaining on the left. The right side of the eye is coated with vaseline. I also put a little vaseline on the cross-piece. The vaseline will help us later when we create the eye socket in the new plaster.

Melt some wax - any wax will do - I use canning wax.

Pick up the doll’s head while holding the rocker in place. Make sure that the eyes are lined up properly. Just before your wax begins to cool, pick some up on your toothpick or paintbrush and drop it where the eyes and the bisque meet. Let the wax harden and it will hold the eyes exactly where you want them. When you are happy with your eye placement and the wax has hardened - place the head back on the towel face-down.

You can see the doll's eyes are held in place by the hardened wax. You don't really need this much wax, but I wanted to make it obvious in my photo. The wax will easily flake right off when you are done.

Step Three: SETTING THE EYES:

You will need Plaster of Paris, a small mixing bowl, a small metal hook (or needle nose pliers), and a small spoon - how small depends on the size of your doll.

Mix your plaster according to the directions on the container. Stir occasionally until you reach the desired consistency. I test my plaster by taking a spoonful and inverting it back into the bowl. When it holds a soft mounded shape, without being really stiff, the plaster is ready. The plaster will harden quickly from this point, so act now.

This is how your plaster should look when the consistency is right. When you pick up a spoonful, it will not be runny, but it will slide off the spoon and form a soft lump. It will look and feel a bit like meringue when it is ready to spread on a pie.

Take up some plaster in your spoon (depending on the size of your doll). Reaching inside the head, let it slide off the side of the spoon onto the bisque, just above the eye level. Gravity will pull your slightly soft plaster down onto and around the eye. Immediately do the other eye, if needed. 

You can see that the new plaster was placed above the eye, and gravity has pulled it down around the eye. Watch the plaster, and if you think it will flow too far down, simply roll the head onto it's side to stop flow of gravity. If you are not successful in your first attempt, just wipe out the plaster and try again.

Now let the plaster set up just a little. At this point we must lift the rocker to create those little sockets in the plaster behind the eyes. You will press one finger gently on the center of the rocker to hold it steady. Press down gently enough that the rocker will be able to pivot under your fingers, but firmly enough that the eyes remain close to the eye opening. This is not as tricky as it sounds. If you did not put a little vasline on the cross-piece, you may find that a little vaseline on the flat part of your finger helps the rocker to move more freely.

Needlenose plers and a metal hook. Two possible tools for lifting the eye rocker.

Ready? While pressing on the eye rocker with one finger, lift the weighted end - all the way up and then back in place. Depending on the size of the doll, you may lift the rocker weight with the fingers of your other hand, a metal hook, needle nose pliers - whatever works and you have handy.

I am applying slight pressure to keep the rocker close to the eye openings.  My other hand is using a metal hook to lift the rocker - all the way up and then back to its resting place.

Let the plaster completely harden before picking up the doll head. Then you can clean the wax from her eyes - it flicks right off with your fingernail - and wipe up any Vaseline that may show.

You are done! If things did not go according to plan…no problem…just clean out your plaster and try it again! Once you have your first success, you will have complete confidence that you can do this any time.

A beautiful doll, given life and personality through her eyes. 

P.S. Do not dump your leftover plaster and wax down the sink.  They will harden and clog your pipes. Before they harden, place them safely in the trash.

A LONG-AWAITED CHRISTMAS GIFT

The year was 1937. A seven year old girl asks for only one thing for Christmas - a Shirley Temple doll. She tells Santa that she wants this doll more than anything in the world. She tells her parents. She tells everyone who will listen. She waits, with all the patience that a seven year old child can muster, for the Big Day.

Christmas morning arrives, and there is her gift - it is in a doll-shaped box! She can barely contain her excitement! She tears into her present, just as her older sister does the same with her gift. Her sister pulls out a beautiful composition Shirley Temple in a white dress with red polka dots. Eagerly the little girl reaches into her doll box and pulls out…a Jane Withers doll? How can this be? Surely there is some mistake!

I think most of us understand how the little girl felt at that moment - as if all the air had been let out of the room. That little girl was my mother.

                                                   Joan Thorpe, circa 1937           
                                   
For many years, my mother retold this story around the holidays. I would not say that we heard the story every Christmas, but let’s just say that we were more than familiar with her tale of childhood disappointment. My sister Nancy and I decided that it was not too late to fulfill her childhood wish.

I had a keen interest in antiques, but neither of us knew anything about old dolls. We both enjoy doing research, so we began learning everything we could about 1930’s Shirley Temple dolls. I was amazed at how much there was to learn, not just about Shirley, but antique dolls in general. The more I learned the more intrigued I became. And let’s face it, a big part of an antique doll’s charm is that it was once loved by a child.  I may admire an antique table or hanging lamp, but it is unlikely that anyone really cried because they didn’t receive a lamp for Christmas. These dolls were another thing altogether!

Nancy located a Shirley Temple doll in Massachusetts that seemed to be almost exactly what we were seeking. She was 18” tall with nice compo, great hair, and an original dress - but she was not wearing the red and white polka dot dress that my mother remembered, from the movie “Stand Up and Cheer“. Nancy bought the doll and we ordered a replica dress for her. We also ordered her a nice wood and glass display case.

OK! We were ready! But wait - we wanted to make the actual “gifting” very special for her. We devised our “plan of presentation”. We made up two cards from Santa. We took the first card and placed it inside a separate envelope, addressed to the Postmaster of North Pole, Alaska. The Postmaster opened our letter, postmarked our card from the North Pole, and sent it on to our Mom. The card read as follows:

Dear Joan,

After much searching

I have found

your special gift

in time for delivery on

Christmas Eve.

No time to explain.

Be good!

Ho, Ho, Ho,

Santa

She was so surprised to receive this card from Santa. Who really sent this card, and what did it mean? It was even postmarked from the North Pole! She has breakfast every day with her friends, and she took along her mystery card to share with them. I imagine she watched their expressions for tell-tale clues of who the sender might be. I remember her discussing it with me and proposing different possible senders and different possible meanings. She had absolutely no idea that it was us! This was even better than we had hoped.

Christmas Eve arrived. She visits with her relatives all evening, and we know her pattern. So when the time was right, we sneaked into her apartment. We set up Shirley in her glass display, wearing the replica dress that Mom would remember. We placed her original dress inside the case, as well. We placed her on my mother’s dresser in the bedroom. All evening she had been thinking about her mysterious special gift. But by the time she returned home, she was a little dismayed that nothing had happened - Christmas Eve was over - had it been a hoax?

So imagine her surprise when she went into her bedroom and saw her long-lost Christmas gift. On top of the case we had placed the second card from Santa. It read:

Dear Joan,

This gift should have been delivered

on Christmas Eve 1937.

Nancy and Sandra have written

to tell me that somehow the Elves

mixed up the tags and you

received a Jane Withers Doll by mistake.

I am sorry this happened

because you were a very good girl that year

and deserved a special gift.

Love,

Santa

The point of my story is this: Yes, she was surely very sad when she did not receive her doll on that long ago Christmas morning. But perhaps the real cause of her pain was the feeling that no one had really listened to her or taken her wishes seriously. Now when she relates her Christmas story, she can smile, because it finally has a happy ending. And many years later, Shirley still stands proudly in our Mother's living room - on display for anyone who would like to hear the story of how
Santa may be delayed, but he never forgets.

                                     

My mother's long-awaited Shirley Temple doll

A few little footnotes:

This is not only the true story of a very belated gift. It is also the story of how two sisters began their fascination with old dolls. My sister is Nancy Dewitt, of Two Sisters Antiques.

The Jane Withers composition doll was produced by Madame Alexander for one year only - 1937. Her current value is 2 - 3 times higher than a comparable Shirley Temple doll of the same period. We would sure like to know what became of our Mother's doll!

                                                                                                                              

                All Original Jane Withers doll, Courtesy of Chip Barkel Antiques

Jane Withers was a child star during the 30's and 40's. She acted in 36 Hollywood films between 1934 - 1943. She is also well known as Josephine the plumber.  She is an avid doll enthusiast, and the bulk of her collection was auctioned by Theriaults in 2004. She has been called an eternal optimist. She celebrated her 85th birthday in April.