Convert in the making :)

Hello everyone! My name is Sharon and I live in Northern California. Married to my first and only sweetheart for 39 yrs now, 3 kids, 1 rent-a-kid, 4 grand kids, and 4 rent-a-grand kids. :) (The rental ones became rentals when mom was a teenager and needed help buying a horse. Born into a 100% non-horse family, she "rented" us when she needed us ... and the title was born.) We live in the country and have 3 dogs, a horse and a pony. Although, the last two are more commonly referred to as pasture ornaments ... sort of like the pink lawn flamingos people use to decorate their yards? lol Only ours are bigger and eat more ... they're still mostly decorative these days.

I grew up a tomboy and never had much time for dolls. If I couldn't turn it into a horse, I most likely didn't have any interest in it. When I had my first daughter, all of that changed. Suddenly I morphed into this totally addicted person who showered her girls with dolls every year. And of course, every new doll needed a wardrobe ... and so the love affair began.

In 1984, the Air Force sent my hubby to Okinawa, Japan and after about 8 months of being a single parent I said nuts to this ... called him up at about 3am and told him "Find us a house and a school for the kids, I'm selling your car and buying plane tickets!! See you soon!!!"

While there, I bought my first "collector" doll and I'm sure if my darling hubby could have seen into the future, he'd have shipped me home ASAP. lol That began my "adult" hobby of collecting dolls. Pretty soon, though, the economy put a cork in my doll collecting habit and sadly, I could only worship them from afar.

That is, until about 1988, when I went to my first doll show. Right off the bat, the first vendor I met, placed a Boots Tyner, Sugar Britches into my arms. Instantly my heart melted and I was in love!! Then I saw the price tag, and with a sigh I handed the precious bundle back to her mommy. I must have looked rather pathetic, because the vendor said, "Well if you can't afford to buy one ready made, you can learn how to make them yourself."

Oh Lordy!! Seriously?? Sign me up now!!!! And the rest as they say ... is history. I've been making porcelain dolls now for over 20 years, but at a show last year, I saw my first "reborn" baby. I was totally enchanted at her realism. Something I've never accomplished with my porcelain dolls. I was hooked. Sucked in like a moth to the flames.

And so here I am now, 3 kits sitting in my craft room, all just waiting for me to get brave enough to dip my toes in the world of reborns.

Here's a link to some of my porcelain girls. https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/g/sugarbritches.jpg/ . If the slide show works you should see my bi-racial Sugar Britches in her christening gown. Next is a bride and her flower girl. (Funny story about the bride. Trying to take that picture the bride kept falling forward onto her face. I was trying to stand them on a slight hill. After about the 3rd time she fell before I could click the picture, I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was a very sweet elderly lady who with a grin told me, "You know those brides. They never eat the day of the wedding and they're always fainting!").

The next picture is my favorite Sugar Britches ... there was just something about her I fell in love with! After her is Molly by Dianna Effner. She was due to be entered in the State Fair until about a month before she needed to be delivered, she got knocked over when my hubby was playing fetch with our 120 pound great dane. *sigh* It would have been the first time I had the entry totally finished before the morning entries were due.

The last two pictures are of her replacement, Playtime Kayla, also by Dianna Effner. How she made it to the fair is a mystery to me, and a whole different story.

Hopefully I'll have some wip pictures to show you soon!

Hi! Sharon to the "REAL" forum. You will really enjoy it here. You have come to the right place to learn all about reborning, Lara's classes are wonderful. All the ladies here are very helpful and will be happy to answer any questions you might have. I look forward to getting to know you better and seeing more of your porcelain dolls. Grab a , sit back, and have fun.

Hi Sharon, Welcome to the group. It is a fun bunch and you will learn a lot. I was born and raised in Santa Rosa, California, we moved to Tennesee about 13 years ago and LOVE it here. I made and taught Procelain Doll Making in California for many years. Looking forward to seeing your new babies and it is VERY addicting.




Pam

to REAL, Sharon. Have some and jump right in!

Hi hun.....I'm new here too!!

Looking forward to getting to know everyone and ALL good "dolly" stuff!!!!

Hello Sharon and to our group. If you're looking for classes...you'lll find them here. Lara is wonderful and her classes are so easy to follow. We are just finishing up the Newborn class, soon you will get to see our finished babies and vote on your favorite. I too made porcelain dolls in my earlier years, I had a span of about 15 years between porcelain and reborn babies - my new nursing career got in the way. As far as I am concerned, my reborn babies shine way beyond my porcelain dolls. It is so much fun to take the reborn baby into a store and see the surprise on people's faces when the realize it is a "doll" not a real baby. I never had that kind of realism with my porcelain babies (even "JOY" my favorite porcelain baby of all time).

Enough said,

Hi Sharon!!! What a wonderful story!!! Thank you so much for sharing!! Can't wait to get to know you better....

Welcome, you will love it here!!!

Thank you for the welcome ladies!!

And while I'm sure I will continue to get the "looks" with these babies, I have some pretty amusing tales about my porcelains being mistaken for the real thing.

The first year I was making dolls I made one for my younger daughter's birthday. She is a sleeping sweetheart about 22" long. We took a trip to Carmel to visit a girl friend of mine and while we were there we went to the outlets on Cannery Row because there was a Carter's store there. It was really hilarious to watch people's reaction to the 13 yr old carrying around a baby that was a carbon copy of her.

Most looks were the head nodding, instant judgment of her as a teen mom, some were directed at me with either sympathy or again the judgment of my parenting skills. And then there were the "OMG !! It's a doll!!" looks when they got close enough to actually study the little darling.

I have to say the "looks" I've gotten used to but it was the finger pointing, verbal attack I suffered from a woman in a parking lot one day that totally dissolved me into a fit of giggles. I'd been driving my mom to her hair appt. one summer because she was having eye problems. The ladies at her salon wanted me to bring in some of my dolls to show them. So one day I did.

One of the dolls was Jan Garnnet's Phoenix who stands about 26" tall. She was the first one out of the car so I stood her on the hood, while I was getting the others out. Next thing I know this outraged lady was stalking across the parking lot shaking her finger at me for allowing a child to stand in such a dangerous spot!!! My instantaneous giggle enraged her even more.

When she finally got close enough to shake her finger at my nose, I managed to gasp a breath in and tell her ... "It's only a doll!" "Of course she's a little doll, but you are a horrible mother for placing her in such danger!" "No really, she's a porcelain doll." After several disbelieving blinks, this very kind and protective gramma burst into her own giggles as she repeated "She's just a doll!"

Welcome hon so glad you found us .... sherrie

Enjoying your dolly stories very much!!!!! You will just love everyone here!!!

Hi Sharon, Welcome! You will just love your results when you take one of Lara`s classes! I love your doll stories! I, too; started out collecting porcelain dolls in the 80s. Now all of my porcelain cuties stand, lonely; on their shelves in the great room while I am locked in my doll room reborning vinyl doll kits! Enjoy your class! Have a groovy day! Barb

Groovyday wrote:

Now all of my porcelain cuties stand, lonely; on their shelves in the great room while I am locked in my doll room reborning vinyl doll kits! Enjoy your class! Have a groovy day! Barb

Sadly a great many of my dolls are banished to the garage for now. That's what happens when you have a boomerang daughter and grand daughter. Move out, move back, move out, move back ... etc etc etc.

This weekend however ... the other daughter is coming over to help me liberate my garage so that we can have a joint yard sale so I'm hoping to find my older babies and see if they forgive me for the lengthy exile. Although ... Lord only knows where I'll put them.

Love the stories. I think we all manage to get them even with our reborns. I walked into the doctors rooms today and the receptionist stood up and peered over and said "what no babies today" I think every head in the waiting room snapped around at the same time. Had she said Baby singlular it wouldn't have made an impact on them but babies made them all look.

Anyway welcome Sharon, you will feel right at home.

Hello and welcome to the forum! you will love it here, everyone is so helpful. hugs, Kathy

I am sure you will love it here. I am enjoying reading your dolly stories

It sure sounds like you have a interesting life and with the children and rent a thing, I like that, do you want to rent my kids?lol. I am kidding of course, hey its good you are here and hope you will check out all the exciting things we have going on. Just sit back and sip the coffee because it's so much fun.

You will have fun here. The ladies are great, and Lara's classes are the best. Wish she was out there teaching when I started reborning. All I had was the sad little Bountiful Babies printed tutorial that had a few steps and fewer bakings!

Baby hugs,
Audrey

PS, at least you don't need a kiln or to pay to have these fired.

Quote :

at least you don't need a kiln or to pay to have these fired.

lol While I'm sure my husband is sad about that, I'm not.

I think he's sad because he thought needing a kiln would force me to empty out the garage (a place where you'd be hard put to park a HotWheels car hahaha), and because the first thing I did was go shopping for a small oven for my craft room, and paints, and kits, and don't even get me started on the fabric for the clothes I have way too many ideas for.

Right now, I'm attempting to finish off re-organizing my craft room with the two youngest grands here ... 3½ yr old and the 4 yr old. It's a hit or miss project as I referee their playing.

Funny story time ... this one is about the 4 yr old grand daughter. Someday I'll go into depth about how she came to our family ... but she couldn't be more like my youngest daughter if there was DNA involved! (She was officially adopted Nov. 20 )

A few days ago, I'd asked her about 3 times to do something ... the last time I had to put on the fierce gramma face to get her to take me seriously, which she finally did. The rest of the conversation went like this ...

Me: Jaiden, if I have to tell you one more time you'll be playing in the bedroom the rest of the day! (said with a slight growl)
Jaiden: (hands on hips, scowling at me fiercely) Gramma, you are NOT making good choices now, and I am NOT happy with you.
Me: (choking back the laughter trying ever so hard to keep a straight face lol) Jaiden, I'm very sorry, perhaps next time you can do what I ask the first time?
Jaiden: I don't think so gramma ... because I did not like your choice.

Can you imagine this little girl when she gets to about 13?