realmsofgold

I usually tell stories about the stuffed animals at the hospital, but I also take care of cloth dolls. Lots of Raggedy Anns and Andys, and occassionally others.

I’d like to introduce you to Marigold 1 & 2. Here is the original diagnosis photo their person sent:

The original, in pink, was made by their human’s great grandmother. The blue one was made by her mother when the pink one got a bit over worn. She was looking to rejuvenate the pair: cleaning, hair, and a new face for the older Marigold. Plus wound repairs and a new pink dress for Marigold 1.

They arrived safe and sound and sound and immediately jumped into the bubble baths:

Then surgery began. Stitching wounds, adding stuffing, figuring out the details for the older Marigold 1’s face. An old family photo gave an idea of their original hair color and style, as well as suggesting there were ribbons at their ankles.

Of course, both got hearts of their original stuffing too:

Here they are, all rejuvenated, and Marigold 1 is wearing her new dress and pantaloons:

Happy twins ready for new hugs and adventures!

They flew home to Utah where their person wrote: OMG! They look great!!!

Sometimes, animals need to go to a higher level stuffed animal hospital, kind of like visiting the Mayo Clinic after having first been treated at the local community hospital. When the toucan’s person first wrote to me, he was looking for that higher level hospital.

Toucan was born in 1965. His person got him by sending in box tops from Fruit Loops Cereal. Earlier this year, he decided that Toucan, while still furry, really needed a bath, and he sent him, along with his friend hippo, to a stuffed animal hospital (not mine). When they came back, they were clean, but their colors were faded, their fur was gone, and their facial features (as well as hippo’s ears and tail) had all been replaced. Their person was, needless to say, not happy.

Here is the diagnosis photo of Toucan that he sent:

Toucan was supposed to be two shades of yellow as well as blue and purple! His man was ok, with the new eyes, but his beak was malformed (he couldn’t get small bugs with that rounded tip) and his tail had a poor patch.

Hippo (who was too shy for diagnosis photos) was similarly pale and unfurry, with the wrong ears, eyes, nostrils, and tail!

The only treatment I can offer for fading and balding is new fur, which I explained to the pair’s man. He thought this would be acceptable (especially since it was reversible if he didn’t like it, unlike their earlier cleaning), so he sent them in – I got to be the Mayo Clinic :-)!

We went through a few options for colors and furriness amounts, but eventually figured out the right balance and surgery commenced. Here is the Toucan all better and waiting for some Fruit Loops:

The hippo took a bit longer. While the man had photographs (old original photos from film!) of them younger, the angle on Hippo was not great for his nostrils, and it took a few tries to get them and his eyes just right. But here he is all better too… he’s even showing off his new tail!

They flew home (not far, just down to Los Angeles) and their person wrote:

The pair have arrived safe and sound.  They have never looked better.  Thank you so much for your superb craftsmanship.

As I may have mentioned at some point in the past, early in the year is actually quite busy at the stuffed animal hospital. Busier than the holiday season, to be honest. My theory is, people get gifts and then realize, what they really wanted was their favorite old companion rejuvenated, and then they call me at the stuffed animal hospital. 🙂

This is the story of Friend, because who couldn’t have a new friend. 🙂

Friend was originally a beagle, a snoopy style dog. This is what he looked like, once upon a time, after many years of love:

A bit worn, but in one piece and very much loved for the memories that wear represented. He didn’t need to come to the stuffed animal hospital until he had a run-in with his family’s new Golden Retriever, who very much wanted to love him as well. But Friend was small, and hand no teeth, and the Retriever was large with teeth and nails and a tongue and after their… interaction, Friend looked like this:

He really needed help!

So Friend’s person’s husband wrote to the stuffed animal hospital, asking for an appointment for Friend, and we scheduled him right away for a spa and surgery.

There aren’t photos of Friend in the spa, because he needed to be taken apart to be safely cleaned. But once he was clean, I started stitching up his wounds. It turned out, he would need about 40% new fur to get back to health. Fortunately, being a white, short furred animal I could find a very good match for him. White and black tend to the be the colors I can get the closest matches to, and short fur or smooth fabrics are easier to match than longer fur, because we don’t need to worry about trying to match the worn length as much.

Here is Friend, all better, and ready to enjoy many more gentle hugs from his people:

His family’s response…. “Unbelievable!”

Monkey’s first person loved him for years, and then his first person had a little boy, and after a generation plus five more years of love, Monkey was feeling a bit worn. Here is the diagnosis photo his person sent to the stuffed animal hospital:

Monkey is a local creature, so once we agreed on a treatment (spa, bald spot treatment, wound repair, new eyes, seam tightening), he was hand delivered by his family.

He started with a spa:

As you can see, the black turned white fairly quickly, but it was almost paint like in texture. I actually wrote to his family, to ask if he had ever had a paint job! The answer was no, it was just oils and dirt from years of an adventurous life. So he had another bath, and another, and a LOT of hand scrubbing, and gentle, one hair at a time, oil removal. Oils aren’t uncommon, but this paint like density is. I actually followed the treatment used to remove oil from birds and mammals who get caught in oil spills, and that was eventually the ticket to restore Monkey’s fur.

Here’s his heart being made and installed with a bit of his original stuffing:

You can see he got modern, hypoallergenic polyfiber stuffing as part of his spa to replace the foam (which disintegrates with time).

Here he is all better! He even got a new nose based on one of his baby photos (his face had been so thickly coated originally, we didn’t know it was missing till he was clean!).

You can also see a small fur transplant he needed on the side of his neck for a larger bald spot in the last photo.

In any case, Monkey was ready to go home, but he had to hang out at the hospital a few more days, till his original person was off work. Then both generations came to pick him up. Their reaction:

Absolutely incredible!!!!!!!!!!! I’m still in shock ! Thank you so much !

Have you heard of My Pet Monster? It’s a cartoon from 1986, which had one season. You can stream it if you like. But for the purposes of this story, the most important fact is that the star was a very colorful smily, monster. And in January of last year, one of the cuddly plush versions was discovered in the back of a closet (so I guess he was a moonlighting as a closet monster?). He had clearly had a rough time in the closet. So his person wrote to the Realms of Gold Stuffed Animal hospital for help. Here is one of his diagnosis photos:

You can see the wound on his chest, and that his teeth are coming out. His feet and hands were vinyl, and had gotten that sticky feel that old vinyl sometimes gets…. and he needed a bath!

It took almost a year, but in December, the monster’s family wrote again. Could we schedule treatment and an appointment for him?

Of course! The hospital was pretty full at the beginning of the year (not uncommon) so we scheduled his appointment for early March.

He arrived and the first step was a spa. He’s quite large, so he got the large pink tub. 🙂

Next he got restuffed, with a heart of original stuffing included … who knows where his magic is stored, so it’s important to keep at least a bit of original stuffing!

For his feet and hands, I can’t replicate the printed nails on vinyl, but we didn’t really want to do vinyl again anyway for the feel. So his person and I agreed to recover his feet and hands in new black velvet and then give him new nails from felt in the same teal as the originals. Here he is showing off his manicure and pedicure:

And here he is all better… even his fabric surrounding his tusks has been reglued:

and so he flew home to Colorado!

Last week I told you about Poochie the dog, who was in his sixties and came in to be stabilized. Today, I’m going to share Bearie’s story. Bearie is a 70 year old panda bear, and he was getting ready to go live with his original person’s daughter. Here are Bearie’s original diagnosis photos which were sent to the stuffed animal hospital earlier this year:

Like Poochie’s family, Bearie’s family wanted to keep some of his original self visible, but since he was eventually going to be loved by a new person, he needed more stabilization, and a bath and new stuffing as well!

There aren’t photos of Bearie in the bath… spas for black and white patients of his age are major surgery, because their colors need to be separated for safe cleaning. But I did clean him, and restuff him. Then, he was recovered in new fur on his head, torso, and limbs. This left his original ears and pawpads visible. He kept his original eye, and hand a new nose and mouth embroidered. Rather than replacing his missing eye, he got a removable eye patch. Here he is before we added his new mouth:

And here he is just before he headed home:

Poochie the stuffed dog is over 60 years old, about 7 or 8″ tall, and very well loved. He’s had repairs before to his shoulders, and he’d been wearing a red dress for years to try to protect his skin from further wear. His person (his original person) wrote to they stuffed animal hospital. They wanted to keep him as close to original as possible, but also wanted to stabilize and reinforce him. Here are his original diagnosis photos, sent by another family member:

I’m showing larger versions in the hopes that you can see not only his holes, but the runs where his fabric is see through.

Poochie came to the hospital last month for wound repair and supplemental stuffing… just a touch to protect him on the inside. He wasn’t getting a spa, he needed to stay as original as possible. And we were keeping old repairs where possible too. Rather, the treatment for Poochie was to stitch wounds, adding fabric under his runs to take the pressure of stitches, and patches where he had holes. Just enough to stabilize him. He wasn’t going on adventures with toddlers anymore, but he wanted to feel safe watching over his family. Here’s Poochie all better:

He’s sort of like a kintsugi vase with its visible seams, or an older person, whose wrinkles and gray hairs tell their story. Poochie earned every scar and new seam, but he’s huggable and lovable specifically for those patches and seams, which are reminders of all the adventures he’s had. And now, he can be hugged again and share his memories (and make new ones) with his family in Washington.

A cheerful lavender bear visits the teddy bear hospital

Bearsy the care bear’s person’s original email to the teddy bear hospital included a brief bio of the cheerful lavender bear:

When I was 4 years old my mom bought me this bear that I have loved for the past 18 years. It has travelled to 3 different countries w/ me and I’ve slept with it every night of my life. Bearsy has seen better days. I’ve already sewn up the cheek seams, back of the neck, and back of the head. I’m now noticing more tears on the neck as well as some on her belly. She also has had all the paint on her eyes scratched off my 4 year old me. After years of being hugged her stuffing has deflated a lot. She has some bald patches and what remains of her fur I nuzzle my face on.

Here are the diagnosis photos she sent:

As you can see, Bearsy’s applique and smile are very important parts of her, but her fur had worn to almost all backing, and her person was hoping to restore the original texture. So we agreed to recover Bearsy, transplanting the appliques onto the new fabric.

Her person also wanted her to enjoy a spa, and have her vision restored while she was here. It took a couple of months for Bearsy to work up the courage to fly all the way across the country to California, but she did, and she quite enjoyed her bubble bath on arrival:

While she was drying, I ordered special lavender fur for her, and we agreed on her new eyes. Soon, she was soft and fuzzy again with her new fur and ready to be restuffed and of course she got a heart with her original stuffing:

And here she is all better, with her transplanted smile and belly applique, all new fur, and 20/20 vision.

She flew home to Pennsylvania and her person wrote:

Bearsy is home!! Thank you so so much for taking care of her. I can’t wait to have many more years of adventures and snuggles with her. Thank you for breathing life back into her.

Get Well Teddy’s own trip to the teddy bear hospital

Teddy belongs to a 3 year old who was very concerned by his run-in with the puppy. Even before her mom wrote to me, the little girl believed Teddy was at the doctor and being well taken care of. She thought Teddy would be quite comfy, because he clearly had been to a doctor before based on his belly band-aid. Here is his diagnosis photo:

And here is what he was supposed to look like:

Clearly, Teddy needed his little head pouch reattached, eye socket repairs with new fur, and two new eyes (they had his original eyes but they were too damaged to reinstall). As time is of the essence particularly when a three year old is involved, we did not schedule Teddy for a spa, just surgery.

So… he came to the hospital and I had near perfect fabric match for his eye sockets. Coloring his new eyes took a little time (they need to dry thoroughly before being installed and as it was rainy here, it took a little longer), but within the week he was ready to fly home. Here he is, just before he flew home to MN:

His person’s mom wrote:

Oh my goodness, thank you!!!!! We will have one for pleased little girl.

and when he made it home, the family wrote:

    I wanted to thank you for restoring our F’s teddy bear, I could barely get her to bed last night because she couldn’t stop hugging him & talking to him. You did excellent work & it brought a lot of joy! Cheers

White Teddy just needs some cleaning!

This is a quick one but an important teddy bear cleaning:

Here’s White Teddy at home with some buddies in Ontario, Canada:

Clearly, the green rash did not belong! He came in for a bath:

Got restuffed, including a heart of original stuffing:

And voila! A healthy White Teddy once more:

(I had to take his photo in the black box because he kept getting washed out by the camera).

His person wrote:

“He looks perfect!  Thank you so much for everything! I haven’t seen him look this good in decades! ”

He flew on home to his stuffed buddies and human in Canada where:

“He got a great big welcome home hug!”