Doll Repair and Doll Restoration Professional

Penny, doll repair student, learning which doll part to repair first

Are you are interested in opening a full service doll hospital or learning doll repair? 

You can not do doll repair with limited information of only a couple of days, unless you are planning on limiting the dolls that you repair. Short courses of only a few days in doll restoration are not going to give you the skills to address the  tasks you will be confronted with when the dolls start coming in.   Do yourself a favor and prepare yourself right for  fulfilling  work in doll repair and restoration.

What is the advantage of taking instruction with Antique Child Doll Restoration?

• Most instructors have had no training in teaching and do not understand spiral curriculum utilized to build upon what you already know. Janie has a BA and 2 Master degrees in teaching.

• You get more time on task with one-on-one instruction.   When you stay in one of the guest rooms, you save money you would have spent on hotel and food.  You have 24-7 access to the doll studio and learning library to get the most time learning.

• You will have hands-on experience learning about 100 years of dolls 1860-1960.  Your instruction will cover china dolls, paper mache dolls, German and French ball jointed and leather body dolls, American composition dolls and the vintage hard plastic and vinyl dolls.  You will learn how the dolls were manufactured, how to restore them correctly, eye repair, wig restoration, repainting for invisible restoration, hard plastic repainting, removing blemishes correctly, and cloth body fabrication. 

• The second half of doll repair is appropriate doll clothing styles and fabrics used for doll clothes.  You will fabricate a pair of authentic oilcloth shoes and learn about doll underwear.

• Customer relations, business practices and web design will be to start you off on the right foot to attracting a steady supply of customers.

• Your education is never over!  You have a support system to help you over the bumps in a  doll business that don’t seem quite so clear once you start doing them.  With as many different kinds of dolls that there are, you are bound to come in contact with problems you have not learned about before. Janie is available as a mentor to help you.  

If you are checking into doll repair or doll restoration it is because you are looking for something new in your life. You want to repair your own dolls, your friends or explore a new career avenue, part time or full. Whatever the reason, you are also seeking value for what you might spend to get the training. As a teacher, I am doing this because it is REALLY important to me to pass on the art of restoring dolls the RIGHT way. You also know that you CAN NOT learn it all in a 4-day doll restoration seminar or even a two week doll restoration seminar. With so many different kinds of dolls, there are going to be times that you just don’t know what to do. It should be important to you to have a mentor, a resource to come back to after the class is over, which most schools or classes do not offer. While you are at a seminar would you like to be able to work any time, day or night or is it important to you to pay for a hotel and food and be able to quit at 5 p.m.? If you want to have an authentic, intense learning experience, walk away with a bag of tools and resources to work at home, then consider a seminar with Antique Child Doll Restoration.

NOW! 5-Day & 14-Day Doll Repair Seminars are Available!

Both shorter sessions and a FULL career training curriculum of 14 days are available to learn all aspects of doll repair!! Certificated for Professional Doll Restoration through Morgan’s Collectibles (JoAnn Morgan), as well as extensive experience in doll repair and an educational Masters degree. I am fully prepared to facilitate the comprehensive program needed for success in doll repair and restoration.

Doll repair student, Chris, learning to style a mohair wig for her Shirley Temple doll..

Doll repair classes  are offered several times a year to learn doll restoration in a seminar setting. Learn doll hospital education in a training environment designed for individualized attention and come away with the tools you need for success in doll repair and doll restoration.

Can’t get away for 14 days? Try a 5-day seminar in Composition/Hard Plastic Seminar OR Bisque/China Doll Seminar. If you discover you want more and would like to take the full course in doll repair and restoration, you are eligible to receive a 20% discount ($800)! !

The doll restoration, repair and career seminars are an excellent opportunity to learn about professional, museum quality doll restoration, repair and period doll clothing.

Mary, doll repair student, restoring ball jointed doll body

Learn doll repair and restoration –

a lifetime career!!

Now Available is a 14-day training course to teach you all you need to know to operate a full service doll hospital. This LABOR INTENSIVE, HANDS-ON CAREER TRAINING will require you to bring dolls that you will fully restore in class. With so much to learn, students will often work long hours to complete the entire course. You can not learn the skills like invisible bisque repair, or composition repair, by listening to a lecture!

Seminars are HANDS-ON in which students will bring dolls and restore them while in class. Teaching doll restoration will cover many aspects of doll repair from simple restringing and proper cleaning procedures, to complete restoration, including airbrushing techniques. In addition, students will take home essential equipment to continue doing restoration correctly at home. Students will learn how to:

• Do invisible bisque and china repair, including rebuilding shoulder plates and fill in missing pieces.
• Fully restore composition dolls, from just repairing cracks to completely stripping them to bare composition
• Completely restore vinyl and hard plastic dolls Restring dolls
• Eyes – setting sleep & stationary eyes to fabricating rocker assemblies to iris transplants for crazed eyes.
• How to clean dolls without damaging them.
• Repair leather bodies. Mend cloth bodies.
• Add colors to cheeks.
• Minimize crazing with craze control
• Rebuild fingers, toes and other parts including entire feet
• Restore bodies from cloth, leather, wood, paper maché, tin and composition.
• How to make, clean and restore wigs and clothing.
• Colors selection – appropriate colors for antique dolls.
• Business ethics, advertising, customer care, process and procedure of doing bid approvals for restoration/repairs, record keeping, billing and receiving payment.

Come & Discover the Best in Doll Repair & Restoration . . .

• Teacher has several advanced teaching degrees (BA Secondary Ed., MA Curriculum, MA Administration)
• Curriculum designed for individual learning styles (hands-on, in-house library, extended learning time)
• Students will receive equipment to get started right, including a 2 phase Badger airbrush ($500 worth of equipment & resources)
• Food or lodging included as a courtesy (purchasing elsewhere could total $1000-$1500)

VIEW Antique Child Studio HERE

Submit a Seminar Request → Click Here