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playscaletheaterYes, it's another experiment. I'm actually a little late in posting this one. Some of it was just delays in getting the pics of the head in sunlight. Others, well... You see, I took the notes in a text file while I was working, and then later I couldn't find the file. I started retyping everything up, trying to remember which picture was of what step and exactly what I'd done... and my computer shut itself off oddly and lost some of my work. Then I found the original file. Well, at least I finally seem to have all the ducks in a row, so to speak, so let's get down to it! Also, warning, this one's going to get long and pic-heavy.
Ok, first off, porcelain is not my usual material to experiment on (that's vinyl), and most porcelain dolls are not in my usual scale (1/6). However, this was a request from someone who wanted to know if my usual method for removing stubborn Barbie faceups (with power tools!) would work on the baked-on paint used on porcelain dolls. As chance would have it, I had a head from a cheap porcelain doll that had lost its body in the Back Room's big mold outbreak. It likely would have stayed in a plastic baggie, ignored, except for this. And, let's face it, I can't resist a good project. So, I got out the off-brand dremel and got to work.
Our test subject: one battered china doll head. This was probably some low-end doll from a drug or dollar store originally, guessing by the quality.
There were a lot of varying references online as to just how tough porcelain is. One site on floor tile said nothing short of a diamond bit would dent it, another said an older bisque doll could be badly scratched with normal sandpaper. As reference, the tip I normally use to remove faceups from Barbies IS a diamond bit:
Due to childhood memories of rules for working with tile or stone, at first I worked with the surface wet - I kept a sponge and container of water nearby for this. However, later in the experiment I found this really didn't make any difference.
I tested a spot up near the hairline first, and wasn't really all that neat about it (I didn't even bother to remove some of the remaining glue from the wig in the area I tested.) It just seemed a nice hidden spot in case things got really messy, and thus a good place to see what the diamond bit would do to the porcelain before getting the paint into the equation.
I have to admit, the initial results did not look at all promising.
Even after rinsing dust away, the area was lighter and had a scuffed look. However, oddly, it doesn't feel at all scratched.
Instead of just calling the experiment a fail, I decided to try a different bit in the dremel. I switched to a sanding bit I'd never used before, figuring it would be less scratchy... but also concerned it'd be a lot harder to get areas like the lips with it. I learned that the little belt of sandpaper isn't all that great at staying on the rubber holder.
At first, it looked like this did a bit better. The area at the top of the head I tested didn't seem quite as scuffy, especially after being rinsed, though there was still a little difference. It doesn't show up well in this picture, while the flash seems to want to accentuate any areas done with the diamond bit, but trust me, there's still a change, just less of one.
So I decided to give the sanding head a try vs the cheek paint. After all, removing the paint is a critical point of this experiment.
Right after sanding looked a mess...
And when it was wiped off with water? It was still a mess. Some of the paint IS gone, but it still causes scuffs like the diamond head. Worse, the removal of paint and the scuffing are both uneven, conspiring to make both look even more of a mess.
A followup with fine-grit (240) sandpaper didn't really improve matters, and even with more use of the sanding bit this is the best it got:
Not a good result. After some thought, I went back to the diamond bit. If there's going to be scuffing or a change in surface finish, I'd rather it was even instead of a splotchy mess. And just for a new target, I went after the lips. The lip color came off as easy as any Barbie's ever has. During working and while still wet I noticed something dark grey-brown that seemed to be scraped off as well. I cleaned the head with soap and water before starting, so I'm not sure what this could possibly be.
After wiping and drying I could see I missed a few spots, and that there's the same slight scuffing.
Just to see if the water was really doing anything at all during this (after all, I was sanding, not drilling or cutting), I decided to go after the missed spots dry. Here's that try before wiping:
And after. I still missed a teeny sliver of color between the lips, but I definitely seemed to be getting somewhere!
So I decided to go after the cheek again, with the side of the diamond head and working dry, using a very light touch until it had left behind a nearly-even layer of chalky white residue from sanding.
Wiping proved that it definitely got the paint this time... but with the characteristic scuffing/alteration I'm starting to expect of the diamond head on porcelain. I think that, in order to remove the paint, since it's baked on/into a porous surface, it's also having to remove a very fine surface layer from the porcelain. Despite the appearance I can't feel any resulting scratches, and there's no noticible change in shape or texture.
One oddity is that the camera flash wants to pick the 'scuffy'/more matte finish up more than it actually looks to the eye. Here's the same cheek out in sunlight. There's a difference, but it doesn't look as drastic as what the flash shows. And when I just looked at it, it actually looked halfway between the two pictures to me.
So it seemed like the answer to "Will a dremel remove baked-on factory paint from a porcelain doll" is "Sort of, maybe... if you want to dremel (and possibly follow-up sand) the entire head to have the skintone match - and even then it's going to have minute variations."
In my case, I just might. I like the softer tone and slight variations it gives to the ceramic. It almost looks more natural. To continue the experiment one step further and see if a reasonably consistent effect was possible, I went ahead and did one whole half of the face to see what the result would be. This time I made sure to work in little circles (like one should when sanding to try to get a nice smooth/even result) and even went back over some areas I'd done a bit to see how even I could get the result to be.
Here it is after wiping with the flash:
And here it is in natural sunlight, and, as a note, I think this image might come closest to catching the actual appearance:
An interesting result to an experiment I might not have even thought to try if someone hadn't suggested it!
Ok, first off, porcelain is not my usual material to experiment on (that's vinyl), and most porcelain dolls are not in my usual scale (1/6). However, this was a request from someone who wanted to know if my usual method for removing stubborn Barbie faceups (with power tools!) would work on the baked-on paint used on porcelain dolls. As chance would have it, I had a head from a cheap porcelain doll that had lost its body in the Back Room's big mold outbreak. It likely would have stayed in a plastic baggie, ignored, except for this. And, let's face it, I can't resist a good project. So, I got out the off-brand dremel and got to work.
Our test subject: one battered china doll head. This was probably some low-end doll from a drug or dollar store originally, guessing by the quality.
There were a lot of varying references online as to just how tough porcelain is. One site on floor tile said nothing short of a diamond bit would dent it, another said an older bisque doll could be badly scratched with normal sandpaper. As reference, the tip I normally use to remove faceups from Barbies IS a diamond bit:
Due to childhood memories of rules for working with tile or stone, at first I worked with the surface wet - I kept a sponge and container of water nearby for this. However, later in the experiment I found this really didn't make any difference.
I tested a spot up near the hairline first, and wasn't really all that neat about it (I didn't even bother to remove some of the remaining glue from the wig in the area I tested.) It just seemed a nice hidden spot in case things got really messy, and thus a good place to see what the diamond bit would do to the porcelain before getting the paint into the equation.
I have to admit, the initial results did not look at all promising.
Even after rinsing dust away, the area was lighter and had a scuffed look. However, oddly, it doesn't feel at all scratched.
Instead of just calling the experiment a fail, I decided to try a different bit in the dremel. I switched to a sanding bit I'd never used before, figuring it would be less scratchy... but also concerned it'd be a lot harder to get areas like the lips with it. I learned that the little belt of sandpaper isn't all that great at staying on the rubber holder.
At first, it looked like this did a bit better. The area at the top of the head I tested didn't seem quite as scuffy, especially after being rinsed, though there was still a little difference. It doesn't show up well in this picture, while the flash seems to want to accentuate any areas done with the diamond bit, but trust me, there's still a change, just less of one.
So I decided to give the sanding head a try vs the cheek paint. After all, removing the paint is a critical point of this experiment.
Right after sanding looked a mess...
And when it was wiped off with water? It was still a mess. Some of the paint IS gone, but it still causes scuffs like the diamond head. Worse, the removal of paint and the scuffing are both uneven, conspiring to make both look even more of a mess.
A followup with fine-grit (240) sandpaper didn't really improve matters, and even with more use of the sanding bit this is the best it got:
Not a good result. After some thought, I went back to the diamond bit. If there's going to be scuffing or a change in surface finish, I'd rather it was even instead of a splotchy mess. And just for a new target, I went after the lips. The lip color came off as easy as any Barbie's ever has. During working and while still wet I noticed something dark grey-brown that seemed to be scraped off as well. I cleaned the head with soap and water before starting, so I'm not sure what this could possibly be.
After wiping and drying I could see I missed a few spots, and that there's the same slight scuffing.
Just to see if the water was really doing anything at all during this (after all, I was sanding, not drilling or cutting), I decided to go after the missed spots dry. Here's that try before wiping:
And after. I still missed a teeny sliver of color between the lips, but I definitely seemed to be getting somewhere!
So I decided to go after the cheek again, with the side of the diamond head and working dry, using a very light touch until it had left behind a nearly-even layer of chalky white residue from sanding.
Wiping proved that it definitely got the paint this time... but with the characteristic scuffing/alteration I'm starting to expect of the diamond head on porcelain. I think that, in order to remove the paint, since it's baked on/into a porous surface, it's also having to remove a very fine surface layer from the porcelain. Despite the appearance I can't feel any resulting scratches, and there's no noticible change in shape or texture.
One oddity is that the camera flash wants to pick the 'scuffy'/more matte finish up more than it actually looks to the eye. Here's the same cheek out in sunlight. There's a difference, but it doesn't look as drastic as what the flash shows. And when I just looked at it, it actually looked halfway between the two pictures to me.
So it seemed like the answer to "Will a dremel remove baked-on factory paint from a porcelain doll" is "Sort of, maybe... if you want to dremel (and possibly follow-up sand) the entire head to have the skintone match - and even then it's going to have minute variations."
In my case, I just might. I like the softer tone and slight variations it gives to the ceramic. It almost looks more natural. To continue the experiment one step further and see if a reasonably consistent effect was possible, I went ahead and did one whole half of the face to see what the result would be. This time I made sure to work in little circles (like one should when sanding to try to get a nice smooth/even result) and even went back over some areas I'd done a bit to see how even I could get the result to be.
Here it is after wiping with the flash:
And here it is in natural sunlight, and, as a note, I think this image might come closest to catching the actual appearance:
An interesting result to an experiment I might not have even thought to try if someone hadn't suggested it!
