The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-02-17
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Tie Wax DOH Business.

A correspondent of the New York
Herald writingsffom Sonneberg. gives this
following account Of tho way wax dolls
ii 70 oman make 4. real wax doll or On. ostp..
pier mache is quite long process. First
Of all the limbs have to be made. Tho
legs, either Of pot or cotton, have to b
filled out with moss and sawdust, and the
same process Is gone through with the
body and arms, the task being intrusted to
q number of young women. The head 10
more difficult to make, First comes the
molding, from q kind of Witty brown
paste, which when hard is almost indie.
structible. The head is nodded in two
halves, the back and the front, and then
the two parts are joined together by the
same sort If paste. The heads are made
by the thousand, Of all shapes and sizes,
and left for the moment unpofished and
sickly looking. Then these frame paste.
board heads are carried to the-wax-room,
where they are passed through some Sc
we're ordeals.' The papier- mache model
heads are dipped into boiling, wax, and
thus have the appearance Of real wax
dolls. But the genuine article, the real
dolls of wax, are made thus: The boiling
wax is poured into a plaster mold it adj
heres to the sides as it becomes cold, and
when the mold is taken apart there is the
beautiful wax head, but simply shell,
and Of course very weak. The head is
cast complete, and only > :smsll opening
is left in the crown Of the head. Then
workman takes the wax shell and very
carefully lines 1t throughout with kind
OF soft paste about the thickness of card
board, which soon hardens and gives the
hoad ito efrop 9TH op1 f<ou
this process the head is placed over hot
very slight degree, whereupon it is busted
with powder made Of potato meal and ala.
baster, to give it delicate flesh tint. In
another room the head is provided with
pair OF eyes, and it is no easy thing for
the workman to select two exactly alike.
Sometimes, as the children know, dolls
squint, and this proves that the workman
who puts them in was not very careful in
his work. Another very skillful work
man then receives the head and finishes
off the front appearance of: the eyes,
scooping off all the wax and affixing the
lids in charming manner. Then eye
lashes have to be affixed, and then the lit
tie lady has to be provided with teeth,
which are put in by a skillful workman
one by one. A still more interesting
study is in the Embarrassing room of
doll mandatory. All the dolls that
come into this room are complete as far
as their heads; there they are quite as
bald as some old gentlemen of eighty who
don't wear wigs. Z he hair for these heads
is first worked on to mesh, which fits
the dolls head so nicely that one cannot
tell but that it is a natural growth. Then
the rough head of hair, with the doll, is
ent>to the female hair-dressers, who are
armed with combs and brushes and hot
curling tongs, have no small amount of
good taste, and would, am sure, make
excellent ladies' maids. The hair, is
made up in the most beautiful manner, in
imitation of the very newest fashions; and
then when the doll is thus combed and
curled it is provided with a delicate
chemisette and placed, with hundred
more companions, in huge basket and
transported either to the great storerooms
or to the doll-milliner who provides it
with clothing and costumes fitting 1t to
appear in the great world. This will only
give you faint idea of how the wax dolls
are made. have omitted many interest
ing parts of the process, am sure, such
rs how the baby dolls are made 10 open
and shut their eyes and to cry papa" and
mamma, but am also sure that near
iy all children have at one time or anoth-
er looked into these mysteries of dull
life, and description would be superdu-
Gus.