Carlson Dolls
Carlson Dolls are generally souvenir dolls; meant for display not cuddling. As such they have "frozen" legs. The arms and head are strung. The most common ailment of these dolls is the deterioration of the rubber band holding the arms and head in place. The rubber band will break and the arms will fall out of the sleeves and become lost. I've made a number of replacement arms from Cernit modeling clay which comes in a number of skin tones. Cernit clay is nice to work with because it just has to be heated for 15-30 minutes at about 265 degrees F or 130 degrees C to set up. Rather than make a hook out of Cernit it is better to embed a screw-eye in the shoulder. I've baked them in place and added them after baking. I'm not sure which method will last longer. Restringing the arms is a delicate operation that requires the use of a crochet hook. If the sleeves of the costume are too stiff for using a crochet hook then a string can be fished through the body cavity add used to pull the rubber banded arm into position.
When the rubber band breaks the head comes off as well. This is a problem because the original rubber band passes over a post inside the head. I've made custom hooks that attach to the post and which will allow the rubber band passing through the body to be hooked and connected to the head once the arms are in place.
When the rubber band breaks the head comes off as well. This is a problem because the original rubber band passes over a post inside the head. I've made custom hooks that attach to the post and which will allow the rubber band passing through the body to be hooked and connected to the head once the arms are in place.