ABOUT LEITH TOY HOSPITAL
Leith Toy Hospital is a toy repair shop that grew out of Picture to Puppet, a custom puppet and toy making business started in 2012. The Leith Toy Hospital officially opened its workshop in 2017, and has been growing in popularity ever since. Leith Toy Hospital and Picture to Puppet are based in a cosy workshop at 64 Constitution Street. Our soft toy repairs range from dog-mauled favourites to antique teddy bears. We also restore dolls in various states of ill health ranging from cracked porcelain to broken eyes.
WHAT HAPPENS AT THE TEDDY HOSPITAL?
You can either drop off your toy at the Toy Hospital workshop or send them by special delivery in the post. When your toy is admitted to the repair shop, they will be tucked into one of our little beds and looked after by our dolly nurse Millie. We will chat through some different repair options with you and make a treatment plan for your toy. We will give them a careful operation (under anaesthetic of course) and let you know when they are ready. When teddy is ready to go home from the toy hospital, we will tie a fresh ribbon around their neck fill out a return to work note stating what they need to do make a full recovery! They will have plenty of other toys for company – no-one is lonely at Leith Toy Hospital!
The Leith Toy Hospital Repair Team
Mari Jones - director
Mari Jones is the founder and director of Leith Toy Hospital. She works on custom builds and also repairs the knitted toys. She also runs Picture to Puppet, our sister company which makes custom puppets and soft toys to order.
Karlyn Finlayson - Teddy Admin
Karlyn handles the check-ins and check-outs and keeps the teddy wards in order. She is also the main contact with the outside world for all the soft toys.
Elspeth Mackenzie - Doll Admin
Elspeth keeps the doll wards in order, handles quotes and invoicing for the dolls, and trundles huge mounds of toys to the post office every day! She is also a fabulous painter.
Emma Forrest - Head of Soft TOys
Teddy Surgeon Emma Forrest is head of the soft toy department. She has a wealth of experience restoring antique soft toys. Originally a textile historian, she’s hopelessly devoted to her patients and treats each one dignity and respect.
Charlotte Abbott - Head of Hard Materials
Polymath Charlotte Abbott manages the hard material department, as well as mechanical and electrical fixes. She is also our resident tech whizz and provides us with much needed IT support!
Ruth Marin - Teddy Restorer
After training as a human nurse, Ruth retrained and has transferred her expertise to becoming a teddy nurse! She says it’s similar but the teddies complain less.
Kiaz Trepte - dolly costumier & dolly hair stylist
After a 40 year career of working in haute couture (for humans), Kiaz Trepte now makes classy made to measure outfits for the toys, as well as being our resident dolly hair stylist. She also specialises in recreating lost toys.
Juan Lebron - Leather Specialist
Juan Lebron is our talented leather speacialist. He works miracles on all the leather, sheepskin and real fur teddies, however crusty they are when they arrive!
Aimee Whyte - Teddy Restorer
Aimee is one of our teddy doctors. She treats all of her patients in the teddy hospital with lots of TLC! Aimee also manages our social media, and is the face behind all those cute, and occasionally bizarre, pictures! She trained as a costume maker and loves making tiny cute costumes for the teddies.
Angela Zawitaj - Doll Restorer
Angela Zawitaj is part of our doll restoration team and repairs all types of dollies. A former animator, she loves sculpting custom doll parts and is also a 3D printing whizz!
Joel Davidson - Doll Restorer
Your dolls are in safe hands with restorer Joel whose main joys in life are scultping and sausage rolls.
Yukari Higo - Teddy Restorer
Yukari’s meticulous restoration work makes sure the teddies all return home fighting fit and strong enough to withstand many more years of love and hugs.
Leith Toy Hospital is a toy repair shop based at 64 Constitution Street, and our working hours are Monday-Saturday, 10-6.
Contact Leith Toy Hospital to ask about repairs.
See examples of some miraculous recoveries!
Find out more about our sister company Picture to Puppet here!