Face done, but no hair yet

Her hair is not quite cured, so I can't paint it until tomorrow.  Doesn't she look like a little Flapper girl?  And no teeth on this Miss Dolly--dolls with teeth creep me out.

She's Doing it Again!

If you are a die hard Schoenhut collector, please be warned--the story you are about to view may cause you to have a heart attack.  An antique doll is being ALTERED.  View at your own risk, and do not bother contacting me and telling me I am destroying a valuable antique.  There are hundreds of thousand of these dolls, and this one was in such bad shape she would have ended up in the trash.
This is what I do.  I salvage badly damaged Schoenhuts, and remake them into one of a kind, "Artist" Schoenhuts.  Sometimes I take a doll that is in GOOD shape, but has been horribly repainted--Sharpie for eyebrows??--and I strip her face off and redo her.  My "Artist Schoenhuts" are in private collections, and of course I keep some of them.  I am doing what I love, and not trying to stir up any controversy, but there are those who are absolutely horrified that I do this.  Not your doll, not your call. 

That said.........

 This "Miss Dolly" is 22" tall.  One of the springs in her leg is damaged, and that leg has been strung with elastic cord.  I do not like dolls with teeth--so she will not have any.  I decided to try "carved" hair on this one, so I have used a product, new to me, called Sculpwood.  It is a 2 part epoxy, sandable, carvable and just like wood once it cures.  Hopefully tomorrow I can paint her.

Mystery Antique Wooden Doll

This incredible wooden doll has come to live with me.  She is all wood, mostly hand carved, and a whopping 26" tall.  She is a mystery, and I am hoping I can discover her past.
All I know is, she was purchased from an artists estate in Greenwich, Connecticut in the 1930's.  She has spring joints, much like the dolls by Schoenhut, but she is not marked or signed.  She is also out of proportion, which I find very odd for an artists mannequin--her legs are too short, her feet too small, and her hands are not well carved and are very primitive compared to the rest of her.  Were they added later?  I don't think so, they look original.

When she arrived, she had a human hair "wig" that was disgustingly filthy, it got bagged and stashed away.  She also had bright red lips, which appeared to have been (badly) repainted and not original.  I repainted them to go with her overall coloring.  Her eyes are mesmerizing--you could literally get lost in them. She is a very heavy wood, I estimate her weight to be about 40-45 pounds.

She has an amazing presence and aura.  If anyone knows anything about her, I would love to hear it! Due to the style of her face painting, which looked very definitely Italian to me, I have named her Giovanna Rosa.