New member

Hello,
I am new to the site and to the reborn process. I am a ceramic artist and the owner of DLpottery studio. My two Daughters are very interested in reborn babies, so I decided to try and make them a few. My oldest Daughter wants a monkey and a vampire baby also. I ordered my supplies hopefully I will be able to do this.

I have been watching youtube videos day and night, pretty much anything I can find to watch about the process.
I think I will have trouble with rooting the hair, but think I will practice on some old dolls first.

I am glad I found this forum :)

Thanks,
Debbie

I'm new too, although I have no experience in doll making at all, so I'm a bit envious of you. I'm working on my first dolls right now and I've made so many mistakes. I can tell you one thing not to do. If you choose to bake, do not bake them on poly fill. I watched a tutorial in which they said to use such to help support the pieces. It does support the pieces, however I discovered little tiny black dots on my pieces after a few times in. I realized that the tips of the poly fill in some areas melted and transferred to my dolls. I tried striping them down and I still couldn't get those black spots off. I chose the poly fill, because I was afraid of towels leaving marks on them. I ended up finding an old white baby crib sheet (100% cotton, I'm afraid of any other fabric in the oven) for my baking. It works so much better.

Thanks for the advise. I think I watched a similar video, I have a few white 100 percent cotton sheets I can use. I bought a few (seconds kits) to practice on, so I would feel so bad when I ruin them. lol

Did you buy any dvds/videos? I am think of going that route. I am so worried about rooting the hair....have you tried to root yet?

No, I'm not going to buy any DVD's or videos. There are so many video's online with so many different ways artists reborn. I'd suggest watching many different artists, though I have found that the Still Moments Nursery has given the best advice so far. No, I haven't tried rooting yet, I still have to wait a bit for the supplies. I am concerned with using Mohair, because I am allergic to most animals and Mohair is from goats. At first I'm going to start off with human hair, although I have read that it's doesn't work so well for younger babies. Right now I have a dark blond color and it doesn't look right on the babies I'm painting now, so I think I'm going to paint on the hair for these first babies. The babies I'm working on right now, I'm not too happy with how they are turning out, they are way too dark. I am trying to make mixed skin tone on them (Hispanic/white) like my children, however they are way darker then I wanted them to be. Esp. the blue veining. A bit of advice, if you are using the Genesis Heat Set Paints, is to get some of the Genesis thinning agent along with the mineral spirits. There are times when you need the thicker paint that doesn't bleed, yet the transparency of small amounts of paint. I thought I'd save a bit and not buy the thinning agent, in order for my blue paint to say in the place I put it and not bleed to other areas, my color ended up being way to dark. After all the paint I've wasted from having to wipe off, it would have been cheaper, and look nicer if I just bought the thinning agent. Also, make sure you have a good 'daylight' light over where you will be working, if not, you are risking the coloring to be way off. Those are just some of the mistakes I've made over the last week. The mountaining amount of mistakes I've already made is discouraging, which is why I joined here. Hopefully, I can get some support so that I don't give up.

Hi Debbie
    nice to see you.. Looking forward to seeing your babies.
Hugs
Carolyn

   

Hello and   

I am doing my first baby as well and am using the heat set paints also so far its going well :)
Im using a white towel in the bench top oven which is working well for me

This is them so far, they are the Caleb kit. What do you think? I'm using an old crib sheet to bake mine on. I'm making mine to be mixed Hispanic and white, like my real babies. You would think that there would be more videos on making skin tones between light and dark, but there isn't. I've looked and looked but couldn't find any, so I kind of took some stuff form AA videos and fair skin videos. They aren't turning out the way I want, but they are my first ones and I've got lots to learn. There needs to be videos on skin tones that are in between. But here is the link, if it doesn't work let me know, I'm still trying to learn how to work these boards.

https://plus.google.com/photos/107550424536720129438/albums/5971237240996584721?authkey=CM_InL_Ar6ulRA

They are looking good for your first babies    I am still gathering my supplies together. I think I may be stalling a bit...I'm so worried about completely messing up. I will post pictures soon.

No worries I completely messed up over and over again, the good thing about GHS is that you can take the mineral spirits and remove it, if you haven't baked it yet. If you have baked it and you still don't like it you can do some color correcting or use nail polish remover to strip it if you really don't like it. I striped them down after the first time I put the blue on, it was too heavy and I couldn't get the blue off. But it was the first coat so it wasn't a big deal to strip it. Latter I found these tiny black dots all over them and I was so mad, I had already done about 15 coats at that point. It took me and my husband a bit of critical thinking to find out what caused them. It was the poly fill that I had them on to bake. The tiny tips of the poly fill in some areas got too hot and melted on them, I got rid of the poly fill after that, baby sheet for now on. After I couldn't figure out what to do (I would have turned them into moles or something but there were too many of them), I gave in and striped them down to get ride of the dots, so upset about loosing all my work, and it didn't work. Those pesty dots wouldn't come off no matter how much I tried. I gave up and decided that my girls wouldn't care that much about the dots, and with ridden with Toy Story guilt. I couldn't just 'let them die', it wasn't their fault that I made such a bad mistake, they deserved the love that my girls would give them. So, I ignored the dots and started again. Don't worry if you mess up take it as a learning experience and take the wisdom to your next doll.

I have finished painting my baby. I am now practicing rooting. I am unsure how I feel about her, but I bought two of the same kit cause I knew I would mess up the first. lol Thank goodness I didn't pay much for them, or I would feel bad practicing on them. well anyway here she is.

https://s885.photobucket.com/user/Debbie_Yeager_Lewis/media/DSC_0241_zpsb80d1e8e.jpg.html?filters[user]=138491059&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=1

https://s885.photobucket.com/user/Debbie_Yeager_Lewis/media/DSC_0243_zpsc22aafb2.jpg.html?filters[user]=138491059&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0

She is so cute! I love her little eyelashes, did you root them? I'm so scared to root, esp the eyelashes and eyebrows.

Welcome to REAL!!!  
Great job on your babies!! Looking forward to seeing more and getting to know you!!   

   Glad to have you join us. Looking forward to getting to know you.

  Yes, I did attempt to root her eyelashes. Not sure if they are right, but I like them  
I am working on rooting her hair. The hardest part is trying to get the mapping correct. I will post updates when I finish the hair.

I think her eyelashes are lovely! You did a wonderful job. I can't wait to see how her hair turns out.