![A Timeless Doll Hospital banner [includes pic of owner, Sheila Callen, company name and logo, and pic of a broken doll merging into its repaired state.]](../../images/TDH_header.jpg)
Papier-mâché is French for 'chewed-up paper'! Well, not really chewed by a human mouth, but papier-mâché used in doll-making is little bits of paper, combined with a wet substance - glue, paste, resin - and possibly reinforced with textiles, to become a paper pulp. The pulp is then pressed into molds to create the various parts of a doll. Some of the parts are glued, taped, and/or stapled together to create the head, body, and limbs. The parts are then painted and finally assembled into the completed doll. Papier-mâché dolls first appeared in the mid-1500s in France. In the 19th century it became a popular material for dolls.
As you can imagine, with environmental changes, mishandling, pets, insects, floods, fires, many papier-mâché dolls have not survived, even those made in the last 50 years. That any have survived is a testament to their owners and collectors. Our doll doctor gets many papier-mâché dolls to treat. A Timeless Doll Hospital is well equipped and experienced to restore papier-mâché dolls.
Deterioration had taken its toll on this large papier-mâché American Indian doll. We refreshed his clothes, touched up the paint on his face and hands and replaced his moth-eaten hair with a new glossy black braided wig, another museum restoration. Today he stands tall again welcoming visitors to a hunting lodge in British Columbia.
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