Dollieh Sanctuary

This week's Dollieh Question from our list. (viewtopic.php?f=41&t=6677)

31. How about is restringing ALWAYS needed?

Joe, Jasper, and Pippin are all strung. I have yet to resting any of them. I've had Joe for 3 years and haven't had to resting. If I had to I have no clue of how to for her. XD

I suppose, eventually, every doll needs to be restrung at some point or other. Elastic eventually loses its tension or the company doesn't tighten it enough to begin with, so the doll gets floppy and can't stand or pose as well as it used to.

I have yet to actually restring any of my dolls for tension issues, though. My oldest girls are seven years now, and they don't stand as well as they used to, but they're Luts Delfs who never stood as well as some other dolls did, anyway (their infamous kicky legs). I believe the design has as much to do with ability to pose as the elastic tension. The better engineered a doll's joint design is (in comparison, say, Fairyland vs. Dollmore), the better the doll will hold poses and stand on its own and such.

My new Soom boy, I left him standing overnight once and he was rock solid. I'd never attempt something like that with my Dollmore Model boy, even when he was new. His legs tend to buckle because he's so tall.

The only times I've restrung a doll was to rearrange the location of the knots. They were up in the head, which I didn't like because it made it really difficult to change eyes or take the head off. I had to shift them around so they were down in the torso, out of the way.

Every doll will eventually need to be restrung since the elastic will loose elasticity over time. I've restrung some of my dolls, each time for a different reason.
Finn was restrung as soon as new elastic came in for him. The elastic Bobobie strung him with is very thin. This meant that he had trouble holding poses and was floppy even though the length of elastic was right. His elastic was replaced with thicker elastic for a doll 2cm shorter than him. Only the elastic in his arms wasn't replaced, as the thread holes are too small for any other elastic.
Dru's lower torso was restrung to minimise belly-popping. I'll be replacing the elastic in her new body though.
Alwyn elastic was losing elasticity but I had to replace it as the edges had frayed. The ends of the elastic are knotted and hold the bar that connects her head to her body. Once again I had to full replace the elastic, but her elastic had lasted about 8 years without being changed.

It all depends on the elastic ... I had to tighten the strings on my DiM girl body because it had loosened up so much within a mere two months (DiM elastic is pretty thick, but has a lot of give). My IH Stella's elastic lost a little tension in her arms, but as she was strung super duper tight I'm actually glad about this (I considered re-stringing her to loosen up the tension so she could hold a pose instead of her arms just snapping back together as soon as I let go, but decided to wait because I knew that special issue would fix itself over time).

I have a pretty good sense if a doll needs restringing. It depends on the quality of elastic the dolls came with or if the elastic is getting old. I've never had to restring a doll more than once, but I've only collected bjds for about four years now.

It's really not that big of a deal, in my experience. It's not scary, at least not on my little MSDs. It just takes around half an hour of my time and a bit of upper body strength.

So far only one doll has been restrung with new elastic, but I'm sure eventually all of them will. Aisling is going on three years with her original infamous BBB elastic and she could probably pose a little better but I love the attitude her little bit of looseness gives her. Cailean could use it, too, but he's doing okay.

I've restrung one doll so far(rather recently too) and I've had him for around 2 years. But he was kind of floppy out of the box to begin with. Hopefully I won't have to do that again for a while now. *Fingers crossed.*

Vince I restrung right away, but I should probably do a better job of it, he's got one 'bad hip'...

Pete and Billy have posed without restringing really nicely, and since restringing is a pain for me, I'm happy to not restring them for as long as they'll hold.

i have restrung my larger resin ones, but mostly to get over my fear or taking them apart and putting them back together. it also has helped with zig standing while posed, her ankle doesn't like to take her weight still though. (er, by which i mean second-leg-joint. damn satyrs)

I think a lot has to d with the quality of the elastic and the engineering of the doll. None of my Planet Doll dolls have been restrung or sueded or wired for thhat matter. Neither have my Lumelight or Goodreau boy. Cordie has been restrung-even though she just got her resin body in December. She was floppy. Both of my Sleeping Elf girlds have been reestrung, sueded and wired, My best posers are my DHS micros who are strung with jewelry elastic. Their posing influenced Cordie's restringing. She is now strung with jewelry elastic as well. It has improved her posing 200%
Cordie gets played with everyday, so I plan to keep a ready supply of jewelry elastic to restring her as necessary.