I was reading on one of the forums that someone had painted a coating of latex over the doll's original skin. They removed the head, flipped the doll inside-out, then put a temporary plug in the neck to keep it inflated properly. Once inflated, layers of casting latex and cheesecloth or stockings were applied. This built up the wall thickness and preserved the doll.

I have an original Lady Latex which is from about 1997 or so... very old... and the legs are getting to the point that if I inflated her and laid on her... they would surely blow out. So at this point it is fix her or say goodbye.

With as much as I have used expanding urethane, silicone, molding silicones, etc... I have not played with latex at all. The only exception is gluing sheets of latex together to create things. So I was searching and found this...

http://www.artmolds.com/category28.cfm

Which would be a good one to use? It looks like they air dry... so that's good... but I need to know if it will bond well to existing latex or not. I need to know what to use to clean the latex prior to doing the procedure. I'm thinking something like dawn dish detergent would work... it isn't too strong and removes oils and grease. (Thoughts?)

Also... after the coating is completed... what do I need to do before flipping the doll back to keep the new surfaces from sticking to themselves? If I can get another couple of decades from her it would be fantastic... I really want to avoid making things worse.

Thanks!
Jerry

HI Jerry,

You can try these methods. You have experience so you can understand will it work for you or not.
1. Clean the fixing area with detergent then get some RD407 latex and apply to that area. Maybe 5 layers will be enough. You can layer some nylon to make it even stronger. Then flip it back inside out. One thing I'm not sure about is your doll's original material been used but latex will stick with latex. Try a small area to test it out. Worse come to worse it just felt off.

2. Clean that area and apply a thin layer of Brush-on 40, After it cured apply another layer. That is it.

To avoid them sticking together you can apply baby power.

Hope this can help
Titman

Hi there,

I just received my 2nd JJ Decadent doll, after sending the first one back because her eye was leaking air. Well...guess what? This one has the same problem. Does anyone have any ideas how I could just repair the leak? I bought some silicone sealant to see if that would seal up the leak, but haven't used it yet, as I thought I should ask if this was a good idea before I tried it.

Thanks,
Pete

If the head is latex silicone won't do much good... at least not for long. Latex is better.

Ok, thanks a lot. I'll give that a try.

Pete