WIP - Maya

Coming soon to Best Beloved Nursery will be baby Maya...  I've finished her skin tones, I wanted to give this delicate kit soft baby tones. 

Maya is being created from a Jen Printy DeShawn kit. I love her sweet delicate features, I haven't quite decided if she is going to be a dark haired baby yet, so you'll have to wait for the update on that one.

The more I look at this kit the more I love her.

Dulcie on Ebay

Dulcie has been reborn from a Michelle sculpt by Evelina Wosnjuk, this kit has proven to be one of my favourites to work on so far. I do love the detail that Evelina puts into her sculpts, so many tiny little creases and beautifully shaped head and limbs. 

The tiny details just make the sculpt so realistic, you can't help touching the sweet little toes. 

Baby Dulcie has been carefully and lovingly reborned using the best available fillings, paints and mohair.

Dulcie is approximately 18 inches in length with curved arms and legs. She fills the arms so well and feels so realistic. 

 

Dulcie is on Ebay for 10 days. I am hoping she finds a new home to go to. To see Dulcie's auction click HERE

 

Benjamin - Custom Order

Benjamin has been a joy to create, the lady who comissioned him had very specific ideas of what she wanted in her dream baby.  We started off by going through a list of sculpts that she could look at until she found a face that she liked the look of,  finally she decided on Benjamin by Regina Swailkowski

Benjamin will be making his way home this week to his new home.

Brighton Photo Booth

One of the hardest parts of Reborn Art is the final photography, the photographs that we use for our auctions and to show the quality of our work on our websites.

We are always striving to create a natural, realistic photograph. A lot of what we do as artists is about illusion and the photographs at the end of the process are as important to us as the creation of our dolls. That is not not an easy task.


At the upcoming Brighton Show I will be co-womanning a photography stand with a dear friend Cassie Peak of Baby Dust Nursery where we will be taking quality photographs of visitors dolls.

We will be bringing along proper lighting equipment, backgrounds and props so that we can create beautiful photographs.

Examples of Photographic work:

There will be a nominal charge for photographs.

3 Photographs for £5
10 Photographs for £10
20 Photographs for £15

Photo sessions will last approximately 20 minutes, pop along to the booth (Stand 27) and book your session.

Make sure you bring the outfits you want your photos taken in and your email address.

Christine's Doll & Teddy Fair - 28th February 2010

Christine’s Doll and Teddy Fair

28^th February 2010

Sutton Coldfield Town Hall

I had really been looking forward to being at Christine’s fair, I went to the first one she hosted as a visitor and a reporter for Hello Dolly so I knew what a fantastic venue the Town Hall was already.

I was a bit concerned that bad weather was going to strike and make turnout poor but this was not the case, there was a steady flow of visitors all morning and it was great seeing so many people making the effort to come out despite the rain and take a look at the available dolls and items.

It was a lovely day, I really enjoyed spending the day with my friend and fellow reborn artist Cassie Peek who was a great help, helping me set up on the day and manning my stand with me.

It's always good fun meeting up with other reborn artists and collectors.

The Next event at this venue is on 1st August 2010

Cassie Peek and Shirley Atkins

Georgeous Displays of Coverlets and Treatments

Coach Prams

Curly Hair - How To

I had a recent custom order where the customer requested curly hair, now whilst you can get wavy mohair, properly curly is not so easy to find, so I thought I might have to be a bit ingenious about how I achieved properly curly hair.

The customer had chosen a Luca sculpt as a gift for her daughter and requested green eyes, handrooted eyelashes and closely rooted dark brown hair, long enough to tie in bunches but with curls.

So this is how I did it.

Obviously with mohair you could use curlers or tongs but the curls may just drop out and I wanted something a bit more permanent, plus curlers were a bit too big for the hair so I had a moment of genius and thought why not use straws and hair grips.

What I used:
A handful of straws
Hair grips (1 per curler)
Scissors
Comb
Setting Lotion
Spray Bottle


I wasn't entirely sure about the setting lotion so I used a solution of about 1 part setting lotion to 4 parts water and used a spray bottle to apply it to the hair.

I cut the straws into 1inch - 1.5 inch pieces but you could use longer pieces of straw and I also found that the type of straw you use make a difference, the straws you get in McDonalds are slightly bigger in diameter and give really nice fat curls whereas drinks straws from Tesco give smaller tighter curls.

Part the hair into small segments and use your water/setting lotion spray to spray each segment.

I also found there were two ways to achieve nice curls, one was to twist each segment of hair before rolling it up on a length of straw.
Twisting the hair before rolling it gives a nice dropped ringlet effect which is very charming but doesn't hold as well as flat rollering.

Continue all the way around the head, stick with small segments of hair and spray well each time, until the whole head is done.

Spray the curled hair with a mist of your water/setting lotion mix.
Once you've sprayed the hair the best thing to do is just to let it dry out naturally.

When you take the curlers out don't comb them out, it will make the hair frizzy, separate the curls gently with your fingers.

It Was All Fun At The Fair

The morning was cold, so cold I had to scrape ice off the car and Cassie and I shivered for the 5 minute drive to McDonalds where we captured breakfast bagels (YUM!!!) before setting off for the fair venue.

You know when you have a good friend in someone when they are prepared to drag their carcass out of bed on a Sunday morning at silly o'clock to help you set up and run a stand at a craft fair.
The venue was really easy to find, always a bonus for the geographically challenged like myself and unloading, a breeze we could pull up right outside and just trundle everything inside. So important when you have a stand to set up and tons of stuff to bring in and you're half asleep from lack of sleep from anxiety and excitement.

I really loved the venue, outside great parking and easy access and inside a big airy room with lots of space to maneouvre and bonus 2 bars! We only had one table to organise so it wasn't terribly long before we were all set and even had time to spare to have a chat with another reborn artist who also had a table.

The day was mostly busy with a steady stream of visitors who showed, on the whole, a lot of positive interest in the dolls and were keen to ask questions about how much work goes into a doll and were quite shocked at the estimate of 120 hours of painstaking work.

Cassie and myself took turns to take a little wander around the rest of the show and there were so many wonderful things to see and buy, Cassie was particularly taken by a range of childrens clothing and I was in awe of some pottery and some mosaic glass art that was there for sale.

One of my mini's was lucky enough to find herself a new home with a very sweet lady who seemed particularly taken with the doll art.

By the time the event ended (4pm) I was feeling rather pooped and more than ready to pack up, head home and order a Chinese, mmmm Sweet and Sour Chicken Hong Kong Style, so so good!