Restoring Retro Elf Figurines


It's early, but some of my neighbors hung their Christmas lights today. I can't say I blame them, it was 75 degrees here this weekend (which is pretty atypical for November). But of course they didn't just hang them, they turned them on! So, I knew it must be time for me to at least start thinking about Christmas crafting. At last year's family Christmas, my Mom set out a few boxes of stuff she was going to take to the thrift store, and I saved this set of three ceramic elves that we put out every Christmas when I was growing up. One of the elves had a broken hat and chipped ear. The other two were pristine in all of their slightly sloppily painted 1970s glory (that's a guess, I have no idea how old these bad boys are). 


So here's a look at the damage. One pointy hat broke off at it's tail.


The same elf also had some damage to his ear.


Upon closer inspection, I determined the bottom of this figurine was much less stable than the other two elves--hence the broken bits. So, I looked at it's bottom. It was a mess. But now I have it's stamped number saved for posterity (though I'd eat my shorts if I found out these were worth anything beyond nostalgia).


To smooth out his chips, I grabbed a small piece of sand paper and some old emery boards. I sanded down his broken hat and a few other odd bumps on his hat and attempted to smooth his chipped ear a bit. Then I sanded the bottom of his tree bench base as smooth as I could.


I wiped the areas I sanded with a damp paper towel. Then I got out some craft paints. Fortunately, my green was a really close match.


It probably could have used a tinge of yellow, but I was too lazy to run downstairs and dig through my stash of paints to find a suitable color to mix it with. I did my best to cover all of  the big imperfections on the hat and let it dry a bit. 


Then I repainted the sanded base (it got a second coat after this--even though no one is ever going to look at it but me).



I mixed a tiny bit of brown with a bunch of white paint and touched up the chipped ear. I also put a bit of white paint on his beard and wiped it off with a paper towel to cover up a bit of the overzealous dark paint wash.


After the paint had dried, I took all three elves out onto the patio with a can of Kamar Varnish. After the craft paint dried, it was really matte compared to the rest of the figurine, so I gave them all a quick coat of spray varnish so they'd match. The nice thing about Kamar Varnish is that it can be painted over later if needed, and it gives a nice satin finish--not too glossy.


I think his hat turned out great! Now I can set these silly elves out every Christmas for many years to come (even with the menacing knife pointed at the doll--he's carving the toy, really!).

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