Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Vanessa, You Were Right About Ginger's Head


In a comment to yesterday's post and my discovery that the bottom of Ginger's head was closed and not open as I had anticipated, Vanessa asked, "Have you checked under her wig?  She may have a hole in the top of her head under her wig cap."

With her wig still in place, I felt all around Ginger's head and did feel a "soft spot" in the back of it. An area of that spot would move inward with pressing.  I removed Ginger's wig and this is what I discovered:


Ginger's head has a grooved circular disk in back that is glued in place.
The circular area is designed to allow easy access to the head cavity and eyes.  I removed that area and this is what I saw:



The eye sockets were covered with white felt which was glued in place.  I peeled the felt away and from the front, applied pressure to Ginger's old eyes to push them inside her head for removal.

Ginger's old eyes are being removed.

The photo above illustrates how the eyes were positioned onto the felt.


I removed the old eyes from the felt and the inner socket remained glued to it.  The new eyes did not have an inner socket, so I applied glue around the old socket as well as on the felt.  The new eyes were placed onto the old sockets as illustrated next.

Ginger's new eyes, glued onto old eye sockets

Now the hardest part was to properly position the new eyes into the eye cavities.


Open head and eye cavities after old eyes were removed

I had to make several adjustments, but finally centered the new eyes in place.

Ginger's new aqua hazel eyes look much better than her cloudy and Sharpie'd ones.

Until the glue dries, the circular disk is temporarily being held in place with masking tape, as illustrated in the first photo of this post.  After the eyes have set, the disk and wig will be reglued into place.

Grandma's Gingerbread Recipe


While manipulating Ginger during the eye transplant, I noticed a Gingerbread recipe on her dress, which is shown above.  Based on the use of Oleo, this must truly be Grandma's recipe.  I haven't seen or heard of Oleo margarine in years.

Thanks again Vanessa for the suggestion.  I probably would have never known about that removable area at the back of Ginger's head.
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Addendum (In answer to the question:  How do you measure the eye socket to get the correct eye size?)

I followed the instructions, diagram, and inches-to-millimeter conversion chart here to accurately measure Ginger's eyes (essentially the eye opening was measured from outer corner to corner).

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10 comments:

  1. Oh my life! She is so beautiful with her new eyes, almost like a different doll. Thanks for sharing the Gingerbread recipe.
    Take care and keep having fun with your dolls.
    Arlette

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    1. Thank you, Arlette! I agree. Ginger looks so much better!

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  2. Very Better,Very Nice!Great job,Debbie!!Congrats!!

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  3. She is adorable. You did a fantastic job.

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  4. Hmm, okay she does look adorable with the new eyes. I guess that's better than you being creeped out.

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    Replies
    1. Much better, Muff; much better. Creepy isn't cool here.

      dbg

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  5. Always glad to be of service. She looks a lot happier with her new eyes.

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