This is just a short notation about some restringing tips that help me. 1. If you are using paracord to restring a doll: a. Thicker is not always better as the elastic looses less and less stretch the thicker it is. Most dolls can be repaired with 1/8" cord from 8"-23" dolls. Large dolls/lifesize dolls can go thicker but not by much. 2. It's less wasteful on cord if you use elastic bands for the arms. It's a very short distance especially once you factor in the stretch of the band. It has been some trial and error finding the right size bands for each size doll, but we are working on updating kits with the proper size for each doll size. 3. All restringing is arm to arm and then head to legs. An elastic band is often the best choice for arm to arm and paracord from head to legs. For the proper length of paracord add 4" to the doll's height to give you enough slack to tie the knot at the end. Not being able to tie the knot at the end is very frustrating if your string is too short especially with all the tension between the limbs. Just allow that extra and you will be sure that you have enough and at the same time make sure you aren't wasting too much extra. 4. It's best to restring your doll completely nude so that you can work freely without the obstacles of clothing. Always undress your doll completely before restringing. 5. Watch the direction of your limbs. You don't want to end up with backwards feet or left and right arms mixed up. It helps after you've attached your hooks to your head and limbs to lay them out next to the body the direction that they go so that once you've threaded through your loops or paracord that you don't have to think about what goes where. 6. Always use the wide part of the hook inside your limbs and the narrow part of your hooks for your cord or band. This helps keep your band from slipping out if it's crunched inside that narrow pinch and you need the wider part to swing in and catch your limb and head bars. It's a lot more frustrating the other way around. 7. Always test your restring by moving the limbs afterwards. You don't want weird movement. Before I push my final knot inside I always look at how the arms, legs, and head are moving. If they aren't tight enough, I have time to untie my knot and pull up more slack. Too tight and your arms are stiff and mobility is strained. 8. Practice makes the process smoother. Try to practice as much as you can, even if you are doing it over and over on one doll. After lots of practice, it starts to become it's own movement that you don't have to think so hard about it, and then it gets easier.

In running a doll hospital, I've definitely gone through quite a lot of repairs and customizations. I thought when I initially started it, that it would be overwhelming as there are so many brands and types of dolls out there, how could I possibly learn to repair all of them? Well I was surprised to find, that really you only need to master a few skills, and that most dolls will fall under those skills 9 times out of 10, so here's a few summaries for dolls from 1950 to today. The four basic skills you need for doll restoration are: Wig, Restring, Eyes, Cleaning, and Cracks or (WRECC). Wig - Refers to the hair situation. Whatever type of hair material used, hair is a major component of repairing dolls to good condition. A bad haired doll takes the quality and beauty of the doll down and a doll can go from unloved to loved with a simple repair to hair. This goes for rooted hair dolls as well, if the rooted hair cannot be restored a wig can help that doll live a new life. Restring - A doll with floppy arms or legs or that is completely disassembled cannot be played with or properly presented by a collector. Many dolls are strung, those that aren't use flanged legs and arms that "screw" into their armholes or legholes, but a flanged doll's limbs can only move up and down, whereas a strung doll has much more mobility. Cleaning - So much of transformation on a doll can be solved by a simple deep clean. Sometimes that's all a doll needs and she's looking herself again. This can be face and body cleaning or just outfit cleaning. Keeping a doll clean shows you care about her. Cracks - Cracks refers to breakage on a doll. This can be cracks at her pressure points such as around the arm and leg holes, at seams where she is welded together, drop type damage which occurs usually at the feet, or mauling damage where a doll's digits go into the mouth and are bitten off. How you complete these restoration categories does start to feel very familiar even among different brands as you find that you don't need different cleaning agents, you don't need to learn a different restringing method, and eye and wig changes the process is relatively the same. Vinyl dolls always need a heat source whether it's blow dryer or boiling to soften the vinyl and remove eyes and are usually pryed out the front or if you can fit your fingers in the neck, pushed out from the back of their sockets. Wigs are always glued to the head. Once you master peeling off one old wig, you don't need to learn the process again for any other brand. Restringing has the same process from doll to doll on hard bodies - arm to arm and head to legs, the only thing that changes is the thickness of your elastic and/or elastic bands size. Repairing a crack on one doll will often be the same process on another doll provided you are working with the same material. Cleaning your doll and working through difficult stains and marks will often be the same from doll to doll. So the good news is that you don't need a lifetime to learn how to repair dolls and we hope to cover most of the variances on tricky repairs in our Doll Forum as we encounter them.

No one wants to fail. Especially when you are running a small business. Failure is not an option and we often sink our entire mental and physical being just to avoid failure. If we do fail it is often not because we didn’t try hard enough, but because success takes time to build. And then there’s that one person who points out viral overnight success and puts that into your thought process to mull over. Yes some people win the lotto too. It will happen out there in the world to someone, but not everyone. And yet more and more of us adapt to owning their own business, putting in 10x the effort and hours than a 9 to 5. Because the journey is more, because the reward is more, and the freedom is more. We don’t want to believe it, but failure gives more meaning and gravity than success and you need both on your journey. Success is the result, but failure creates the meaning behind our success. Without that knowledge, we don’t know why we are succeeding and we don’t understand how to grow. Just as there are different levels of success, there are different levels of failure as well. And while we are not actively seeking a total wipeout failure, those that succeed after a wipeout have stronger businesses than those who never failed at all. When I say leave room for failure, allow yourself to fail because you always get a stronger and better business from learning from mistakes. In this day and age, the concept of skipping right to success is fed into our minds over and over. We want that internet fame, that level of money without the hard work, climbing sales with little effort, and viral everything. Sounds great right? But if you are a business that processes 10 orders a day you have no idea how to handle 100 in a day and run into severe problems instantly. Incremental growth you can learn to manage over time and instant growth can cause complete chaos. If you are a handmade business, you have an instant problem of how to make and fulfill your orders, plus if you cannot recover in an appropriate time frame you have angry customers. Failure is also notorious for uncovering your weaknesses. Everyone has them but maybe you don’t have to address them right away because you are doing ok. All it takes is a shift in the economy or a new competitor in the market and a tank in sales to force you to address your weaknesses. We are often guilty of setting something aside that doesn’t feel important while things are doing well. I’m the three little pigs scenario did you build your house of brick or straw? Because all it takes is a huff and puff from a wolf to show you what that house is made of. It may be fine when it’s sunny, but can it weather a storm? When failures expose your weaknesses, it causes you to be more proactive for an upcoming storm or for the impending wolf. So the thought to take home, is allow yourself room to fail in order to come out stronger and prepare yourself for the ups and downs of business. You’ll have healthy growth, knowledge, and strength in your business.