Let me try to explain, it is the art of taking a blank vinyl head, arms and legs specially made for Reborners and turning it into a doll that looks and feels very close to a real baby.
This is done by painting with many many thin layers of paint and building up the layers until you get a depth and skin tone similar to real skin. This is then baked in an oven to cure the paint and make it permanent. little skin imperfections can be added too..
Hair (mohair) is then rooted 1 single hair at a time sparsely or thickly depending on how old you want the baby to look. this is the most time consuming part of the process and
can take as many as 100 hours to complete just one head.
if sleeping baby, eyelashes are also hand rooted.
Awake babies have either plastic or glass eyes fitted.
The doll is then fitted with a cloth body, specially made which is then filled with fibrefill, babyfat and tiny glass beads to what ever weight wanted.
The limbs are also filled with minute glass beads plus fibrefill and then sealed to give added weight.
The doll can be fitted with a magnet inside the head and one is then added to a dummy/soother/paci if required.
It takes on average around 3-4 weeks to complete a doll.
A lot of work goes into the making of these beautiful babies and they also need to be cared for in order to keep them in good condition.
Hope this gives those of you who have’nt heard or seen a Reborn before so idea of what they are.