REPAIR OF WOOL HAIR more  -->

Almost every doll in the collection received some insect damage to their wool hair. This varied from minor to completely missing heads of wool hair.  I could not find any research techniques to follow for the hair repairs therefore I had to fall back on my experience as a doll maker.  

For the six male dolls I used a looping technique, I felt it best duplicated the hair that was left on the dolls originally.

 

For the female dolls there were a two with very little damage, so I tried to duplicate the method that was originally used on the remaining 9 female dolls.  In this method I stitched loops of hair to the hairline on the front and sides of the head and then gathered and secured it to the back at the neck before braiding it. 

2008.016.035: Male doll before repairs
2008.016.035: Male doll after repairs
2008.016.037: Female doll before repairs (front)
2008.016.037: Female doll during repairs
2008.016.037: Female doll before repairs (back)
2008.016.037: Female doll after repairs were complete.

I found a good match to the wool hair in texture was “Cowichin Sweater “ type yarn, but unfortunately I could only get black.  For the other colours of hair I had to use regular type wool yarn, which was too tightly spun and even so I could not match the reddish brown colour exactly.  Although I could not get an exact match, I felt it was close enough to make the repair effective.