What to do with broken doll heads? A creative solution.

As you know I buy large quantities of doll parts that are damaged. Sometimes I get a face that is broken diagonally like this one. It is always a challenge to find something good is hiding in a piece like this. I actually was thinking of some other design and handling this like a touchstone or talisman. It worked its way around my hand and ended on top of my ring finger.

You can see it is deep and thin and probably would not make a great ring top.

But add a little two part silicone mold compound and we have a perfect mold to cast a solid replacement. I choose to use ice resin with an addition of titanium white paint and PearlX macropearl

Here is the second head with the white Ice resin on the top and a second layer in a slightly different color.. I poured the first layer and let it cure then positioned a ring shank in the mold and poured the second layer.

Here you can see the first head with a silver plate floral ring http://www.bsueboutiques.com/item/Floral-Ring-5276 embedded in the second layer. This makes it a permanent part and no connectors are needed. This also reduces the height so it seems to fit closely on the finger. I made this one to fit a left hand with the face looking up at you but you could do it for either hand or make it straight on. If the object you would like to use is not broken...just make your mold at an angle by inserting the head into the mold compound at an angle...or tilt the full mold to one side when you fill it with resin.

The edges are a little rough and need to be sanded down so they are comfortable. An emery board works well for this.

Before and after...a little paint was used. Matte Neo opaque white first then Pearl White Lumiere for the hair...looks like a pale platinum blond. You could color the face and hair to be whatever you like best. Acrylics like the neo opaque have little body and go on smooth with a soft brush. I used a stiffer bristle brush to give some dimension to the paint.

Another view with the shank showing.

This is a little garden sprite made from a broken doll and wings from a dead cicada. Yes I pulled the wings off a bug! He was already dead so no guilt...Next time I will talk about the adhesive choice and show the piece complete...its still a work in progress at this point.