Earlier, I posted the top photo of a size 0 Gaultier fashion doll named Lucie who’d fallen on very hard times. My boss was generous enough to let me have her (head, shoulder plate, and neck articulation mechanism) when I noticed her sitting on a workbench, separated from the body she’d been purchased for. Armed with epoxy, a round file, sandpaper, and admittedly vague knowledge of what I was doing, I set to work.
The first method I tried involved making a mold using Sculpey and self-hardening Alley Goop silicon mold clay. I must have done something wrong, because the silicon never hardened and I had to scrap that method altogether. I instead just worked with the epoxy (Apoxie Sculpt, recommended by a friend/lifelong restoration artist) sans mold- freehand, I guess? As you can see, the result is generally correct but somewhat clumsy, which I’m attempting to remedy as best I can by sanding.
In several 20-minute periods.
Because the hardware store doesn’t stock size small respirator masks and the larger one makes me lightheaded if I wear it too long. #petiteproblems
Once the arduous task of sanding is done, the equally arduous airbrushing begins. Have I mentioned I’ve never used an airbrush before? This is going to be…interesting.
(That being said, I do flatter myself that I’ve done pretty well for a first try. Having an intact French fashion doll as a model helped immensely in the sculpting phase. Otherwise it seems largely a matter of forcing myself to slow down and take as long as necessary to get things right.)
So I think the roughest of the rough diamonds has arrived.
Everyone, this is Lucie. She was once a size 0 Francois Gaultier fashion doll. She came to my workplace as half a head and a shoulder plate. My boss kept the plate since it was totally intact, but let me have Lucie.
A restoration artist friend is sending me instructions on how best to rebuild the rest of her head; I’ll buy some epoxy and get to work as soon as I can. After that, the struggle to piece together correct eyes, neck works, shoulder plate, and body begins.
Time has left her with barely enough substance to be named, but she’s still hanging on. And I’m going to bring her to life again.
