Mid-century Geisha lamp restoration!

Back in February I bought a fabulous lamp which I blogged about here, including how I had to repaint part of her eye where the paint had chipped off the chalkware. A bigger problem was the fact that she was missing a hand, which I finally got round to rectifying a few weeks ago!


Here she is with her missing hand, you can also see a chip to her sleeve which has been painted over black - I may remodel this at some point with some sort of filler and gold paint, but for now it's not noticeable.


To make a replacement hand I used plain white Fimo (polymer clay), painted with acrylics and covered in an antique effect varnish. I'm capable of sculpting a much finer hand, but obviously it had to match the existing one on the lamp which isn't that well modelled.


Here it is in place! It just slots into the hole in her wrist and twists slightly to hold it firmly in place.


I also picked up two 1950s spun fibreglass lampshades from a vintage rummage sale (£3 for the pair), and have added one to cover her bare bulb. I think she looks great!