It's a teddy emergency.

A jealous dog has chewed off rabbit's ears or a favourite stuffed toy has come to pieces in the washing machine.

Taupō doll's hospital owner Elena Adam, based in Taupō for the last five years, has seen it all in her 35 years restoring treasured toys and artwork.

"It is a high level of responsibility as the things I am fixing often have high sentimental value," she said.

In the last two years, she has carried out urgent overnight repairs for a distraught child.

"It is a huge drama [for the family]. The child is crying, they can't sleep because their teddy is broken and they won't hear of a replacement."

Elena is working on restoring a 110-year-old oil painting where the paint has become flaky and rubbed off in places. The owners are reluctant to display the painting in its current damaged state but also don't want to lose it.

"For them, it is most important to keep something that belongs to the family."

Restoring the artwork to its original state requires hours of carefully lifting off the existing paint, replicating the exact colours and then painting over the original work.

"At the moment the painting is dark, after I am finished the whole piece will be livened up."

The current owner is three generations removed from the artist and says the painting has high sentimental value.

Elena qualified as a doll repairer at a doll's hospital in New York and is an expert at restoring antique dolls made from porcelain, wood composition, or celluloid.

Her expertise extends to making clothes for the dolls using the same type of fabric that would have originally been used, making wigs from real human hair or else mohair from a goat, repairing porcelain or earth clay body parts to their original state, painting doll's faces, and finishing with spray-on glass.

She has boxes filled with dolls socks, rubber bands for connecting body parts, and little pieces of fabric to make dolls clothes.

Elena says Chinese factories currently produce antique-looking porcelain dolls for around $2.

"And you can buy them at a second-hand shop for around $10."

Most of her antique repairs are carried out on dolls manufactured in the 1920s or 1930s.

Recently she repaired an antique porcelain baby doll for a Taupō grandmother who wanted to give the doll to her grandchild.

"There was no face, no eyes, a broken nose and mouldy teeth."

The grandmother couldn't believe it when the doll was restored to its original condition.

Another Taupō grandchild kicked their ball at a near life-size earthenware musician, breaking it into many pieces. In this case, Elena had to reinforce the interior of the heavy sculpture with wire.

"The worst thing is when people glue the porcelain or earthenware piece. I have to open it and start again."

Some people come to Elena with expensive pieces to repair, but she says there is usually a high sentimental value as well.

One local couple brought their metal French figurine to Elena to restore after it had broken and been repainted.

"It was expensive, but it also reminded them of their travels in Europe."

Some of the repairs Elena carries out are on valuable pieces, for instance, the time a child gave a felt Lenci Italian doll a Halloween makeover.

Other people have no idea they are in possession of valuable pieces and recalls how her boss in New York bought a $2000 doll for $120.

"If the people are not interested in what they are selling then they don't know the price."

Elena attended the New York Toy Fair in 1994 and was hooked. She already knew how to sculpt porcelain clay for making doll body parts and had worked at the doll's hospital.

"I discovered there was another kind of doll, original sculptured dolls."

She began making limited edition doll families and had great success exhibiting and selling her original dolls.

Since then, she has restored collector's items, including a life-size Princess Leia that was broken in transit.

"'She was probably opened by customs officers looking for drugs. The owner had all the Star Wars characters and asked me to restore Princess Leia."

Elena says she loves what she does.

"It is my goal to make people happy, my work makes me feel good."

Credit: NZHerald.co.nz