When Fr. Simon brought this statue to us for repair, it came with lots of "extras"...
"Extra" layers of paint, "extra" dust, and "extra" beads.
The beads were mostly fragments of costume jewellery; the centre of the crown was filled with an abundance of silver "pearls" nesting in its centre. One bead was decorated with the word "Mother" which was touching to find.
The hand which held a sceptre was missing.
To ensure a new hand matched perfectly to the original, I sculpted a replacement in clay to match the existing one. This was later cast in plaster and attached to the statue.
As work progressed, Fr. C decided the statue should hold a rosary rather than a sceptre, as it would installed in a new rosary chapel he was decorating. I affixed a small loop into the hand to support a rosary, so that it would not damage the new hand.
Madonna statue customisation to Our lady of the Rosary