Another darling preemie is born!

I was recently commissioned by a local man to reborn a preemie baby for his elderly mother for Christmas.  He chose the Kadence sculpt as well and I have become quite fond of this little darling!  She is a bundle of expression in a small package!  He didn't choose a name for this baby but decided instead to allow his mother to choose her name so we left that part of her birth certificate blank.  Here is the finished baby.  clicking each photo will bring up the larger version for viewing.

I really like this little mite!

This is a Bountiful Baby preemie sized kit called Kadence.  I am working on a Simply Baby version of her for a local lady who has dementia. I am loving her!  First of all because she is a darling baby and secondly she is nice peach colored vinyl and not the new light peach color that Bountiful Baby has had lately.

Here is a sneak peek at her before she has her hair painted on.

Another Simply Baby line reborn

Here's a cute little guy by Adrie Stoete.  I have decided to name him Sammy. He has Genesis painted hair. I still have a long ways to go on learning how to paint hair but for a budget baby I think it works. His head is not attached here as I have yet to glue his magnet inside. This is a flash photo. He has fair skin with the ruddy mottling. His hair is reddish brown. He's going to be about 20" long and close to 4 1/2 lbs. He will go up for sale.

     

Little Chubby Cheeked Courtney is born!

I have worked from sun up to sun down to get this little girl finished!  I am so pleased with the way she turned out.  She is such a chubber in a small bundle.  At 19" long and 4.6 lbs she just snuggles right into your arms for a cozy nap.  I really do like this baby. 

New Simply Baby reborn in progress

I've gotten in the habit of having 2 or 3 dolls in the painting process at once so the other day when I started working on neutralizing the lifeless coloring of the Bountiful Baby vinyl on the Camryn kit I worked on this Spencer kit as well.  Today I worked on her skin tones some more.  This one is going to be a girl hopefully.  Here she is after I am pretty much done with her skin tones.  I have yet to paint her hair and eyebrows as well as her nail tips.  She will get rooted mohair lashes.  I am thinking of calling her Courtney.  She's such a cute little chubby cheeked baby.  She will be about 20" long and around 4 1/2 lbs when finished and will be for sale.
Here is her before picture as a blank kit 

and here she is after having some of her skin tones painted

I was recently featured in a local newspaper, The Oconee Leader

A reporter visited my home last week to interview me about reborn dolls.  She took some photos and lots of notes.  Today the article came out and I am very pleased with the way it turned out. The first page photo is me holding my reborn Brooke. The photo on page 2 was taken of some of the babies in my crib. The 2 babies on the left are reborns and the Emily is a regular Ashton Drake doll.  The baby on the left in yellow is actually for sale as well.

Baby Camryn is born!

I worked like a furry to get this little darling finished so that I could take her along with me to a presentation I was doing for a church ladies group on reborn dolls.  She turned out lovely I think and is a production of my Simply Baby line.  She found a new Mommy at the church I spoke at as well!  That was a nice bonus!

Here is baby Camryn's quick photos I took right after I finished her.

Neutralizing Gray Vinyls or How To Give Color To Lifeless or Gray Vinyls

Bountiful Baby has been experimenting with their vinyl colors and one of the recent releases is an awful gray coloring.  Due to the unpopularity of this color some good sales can be had on the kits though.  I thought I would take my chances on a couple and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

However, the mix is a mystery, LOL. I took the ethnic brown mix I had left over from my last session and added some of my crease mix to it that I had left over and then added some Pyrrole red 07. The flesh mix had some flesh o5 with a hint of blue & yellow and I think some burnt umber.

What I ended up with is a color that is somewhere between the color of silly putty and terracotta.
It is the color in the middle well here that I made.

 
Here is the painted head on the left compared to unpainted on the right. It has 2 layers of the mix I made on it. This is one of the sale kits I bought that I am going to reborn as a budget baby from my Simply Baby line. Now what I will do is mottle and blush her, paint creases, veins etc and then use a yellowish flesh layer last to pull it all together that will be a Simply Baby. My Simply Baby line are dolls that are made for older children, Alzheimer's and Dementia comfort therapy, or just any adult looking for a simpler reborn on a budget.

She/he will either be bald or have painted hair.

Lil Dumplins Reborn Dolly Hospital baby

A local lady contacted me about trying to repair a BB reborn she had purchase from someone else. This doll belongs to her 10 yo daughter. She said the doll came to her reeking of smoke and she had literally soaked the ENTIRE DOLL in soapy baths trying to get the smell out. She had eye damage from where an eyelash came off and she tried to glue it on herself with super glue. So I was to fix the eye but once I saw the doll I knew it needed more than just that.

I took the entire doll apart because all the stuffing had to be tossed, the parts washed and the body and clothing washed to try to get more of that smoke smell out.

Let me say here that if you smoke, PLEASE don't do so in the house and around your reborning supplies. It just ruins them for those who are bothered by ciggy smells. You might not can smell it but everyone else can and it is horrible!

Anyways, here is what was inside the doll. Not the worst thing I have seen but not up to my standards. It is a good thing I took it apart too because there was wet poly fill and pea shingle where the owner had tried to wash the doll and it all had not dried out. Also the limbs were not sealed, just filled with this gravel and a bit of poly fill on top of that. Not quality work at all.

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UPDATE TO BABY SUDELLA

Here is the little girl's Sudella now after having been to Lil Dumplins Dolly Hospital!
She has been completely taken apart, washed inside and out as well as her body. She has new poly fill stuffing and glass micro beads. I also inserted some wonder wafers to help make her smell good. She had her blushing and lips enhanced, nails redone, new eyes inserted and lashes. She had already bought her own new eyes and brought them with her. The hair was deep conditioned and trimmed. It is not good quality mohair but it looks better than it did. This body is not made to my liking either as it is very fat in the chest area but it wasn't in the budget to do anything about it. They requested she be stuffed more firm so she looks a bit robust but with clothes on it isn't too bad.

With Fall comes changes

Thankfully with the changes of the season we are leaving the hot humid GA days behind us and moving into more breezy cool days filled with sunshine.  I know before winter is over we will be craving the hot sun again but for now I am basking in the gentle weather.

I have faced some struggles in both my health and personal life which has deterred me from focusing on reborning as much as I would like to.  However, I have not left it behind.

I recently acquired a new dream baby.  She is a silicone baby sculpted by Angela Harris called the Angel sculpt.  I have always wanted this baby and a dear friend made it possible for me to adopt her.  She is my first newborn silicone doll.  I just love the way she feels and rests in my arms!

Here she is:

 
I have also been working on reborning the Sophia Madelina kit by Bonnie Brown.  I am envisioning this baby as a Filipino baby and have conversed with a lady on Doll-Fan chat board about Filipino skin coloring in an effort to paint her accurately.  I have finished her coloring and need to go back and seal her with Genesis Matte Varnish and paint her nail tips and gloss them and her lips.  I am very happy with her progress so far.  This baby is indeed a chubba bubba!

What an ordeal but it ended in a sweet baby!

My most recent work in progress was a Tessa mix and match baby that I planned to reborn as a budget baby (hoping for a quick sale!)  After I painted the first layer on all the limbs and heat set them I got to looking at the feet and decided something was amiss. One leg is slightly larger in the thigh and knee than the other and has more open toes. Apparently some time along the way I got the legs mixed up! I bought several sale kits last year. The left leg appears to be a leg for Kim Van De Wettering sculpt and the rest of the limbs are Jacque Gwinn Alex. I bought 3 Wettering kits last year and this Alex kit that I am using the limbs from all at the same time. I reborn and sold all the Wettering babies now.  I talked to Linda at Dolldreams about a possible replacement leg but she said the Alex kit has now been discontinued so no legs to be had.  So I just decided to proceed with the baby with the mismatched limb and make the best of it.   Once I got him all finished and put together he looks quite adorable and is a sweet snuggly baby!   When he is wearing pants you can't even tell there is a difference because his feet are pretty much the same size. 

So here he is all finished up and his listing starts on Ebay tonight.

New kits now I need motivation

I finished up my temp job working at the college bookstore so now I have more time to focus on things like cleaning my house (yuck!) and reborn doll making.

I recently got a couple new kits.  One is Sophia Madelina by Bonnie Brown.  This is a super big chunky baby!   I actually paid to have a Spearson body made for this baby because I wasn't sure if I wanted to attempt sewing one and trying to guess the proper measurements.  I may well end up keeping this baby once it is reborn but we shall see.  Here is the kit and a couple images of this kit that others have reborn.  Look at those thunder thighs!

I also just purchased a Bonnie Brown Buggy kit that makes a preemie baby.  This one I did purchase for me to keep!  I love her toes! She has long skinny legs just like a preemie baby and a big head!  Love this kit!

I also recently got a Tessa head by Didy Jacobson and I am matching it with these Jacque Gwinn limbs to make a cute newborn 19" baby.  This one will be for sale when finished. 
 

So now I just need to find my motivation and get back to painting dolls!  First though I gotta get motivated to clean the house this weekend!  Ho hum!