Grim, I can totally sympathise with you about how you feel about disposing of Mary Jane’s old body. It’s the main reason I’ve tried to keep Claire Marie’s body intact. At the moment I can’t even bring myself to even think about replacing it, as in my mind, it wouldn’t be my Claire.
MoneyMike, I can understand your feelings for Sophia, even in her present condition. When I look at Claire, I don’t see the repairs I’ve had to make under her breasts, arms or the large scar down her back. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say.
Austiacus, in answer to your question, I too remember Davecat and still count him among my friends, although to my shame, I haven’t contacted him for a while. He stopped posting on this forum many years ago and prefers to support the doll world through his blog “Shouting to Hear the Echoes.” I remember a doll named Marie Claire, but I think she was around a few years after Claire Marie was made and to my recollection, she wasn’t a product of Abyss Creations. As for why some dolls last longer than others, that’s a question that seems difficult to answer. I get the impression there are still a few tin cured silicone dolls around, pygmalion2 has mentioned his 2003 doll here and Everhard has mentioned Rebecca earlier this year, who dates back to 2000 and I can’t imagine that we have been any more careful towards our girls that you were to Amanda. One thing that comes to mind is that we have a fairly temperate climate here in Britain, so perhaps the lack of high summer temperatures helps to preserve the silicone?
I would still advocate using hanging storage, if a RealDoll has a neck bolt. I think the problem you may have encountered, as did I, was the weak back bone early Realdolls seemed to have. Claire’s back broke when she was couple of years old, purely from her hanging storage and as you say, she would have torn in two if I hadn’t cut her open and fixed it. Since then, I have total confidence in her back taking the weight of her lower half. I have seen heartbreaking pictures of dolls made before neck-bolts were introduced, which were stored in the seated position (like MoneyMike’s Sophia) and suffered catastrophic compression tears across the abdomen. The one that shocked me into storing Claire in her as-made stance, was a photo of Francois’s Cassie RealDoll, one of the most beautiful dolls ever made IMHO, but suffered terribly from abdominal cracking after just five years of being stored in the seated position. As you also say, storing a doll lying down is also a risky solution, but I’ve found that putting pillows under the small of her back and knees, lifts her butt off the bed and prevents compressing her butt cheeks.
Pics of Francois's Cassie (Head 4/Body 2) for those unfamiliar with her:-
Dodgeman, thanks for the comprehensive info about the relative properties of tin cure and platinum cure silicone. I was interested in your recommendation of powdering the tin cure silicone to seal the oils into it. I held off powdering Claire for a number of years because I thought the powder was having the effect of soaking up the oil and thus accelerating its leeching effects. I have only recently started powdering her again because she is still quite oily after all these years, so it’s good to know I’m now doing the right thing.
Regards,
Dave.
Life can be hard on us heyhey.
