Reborn Dolls: Dolls To Look Like A Person
A recent trend among collectors and hobbyists alike is the creation of the more realistic looking, more lifelike, and closer to a human child looking doll. Indeed, the trend known as creating reborn dolls has been something that is creating a new market and craft for hobbymakers and other individuals across the collectable community. The ability to create lifelike dolls now more than ever is spreading among those craftspeople who have long tired of the typical dolls sold at retail.
The market for reborn dolls has absolutely exploded in the past five years, thanks to a widespread implementation of art techniques that allow for more realistic-looking dolls. The berenguer and preemie dolls that have sold for years can be credited partially for the craze brought on by reborn dolls, as they began the trend of lifelike qualities and expressions that make them reminiscent of a real human baby.
A doll can go through a process in which it is upgraded and, in a sense, reborn. This requires the disassembly of the doll. The doll is stripped from its artificial appearance and the paint is removed to reveal a plastic shell. If necessary, the shell can be altered. In the end, a doll can transform into a more appealing and realistic model.
When you are working to create a reborn doll, you will need to add a purple color to the inside of the head, arms, and legs, so that you can start to achieve a realistic baby skin color. You will then paint the outside of these pieces with several different skin tone paints and colors, adding real skin color, and then to bring the doll a lifelike look, you will use other tones and techniques, creating skin lines, blemishes, and other effects.
Using real human hair or soft, humanlike mohawk faux fair, hair and eyelashes are added to the doll, causing the reborn dolls to have human-like characteristics. This process can take dozens of hours, since it is often done by hand and by strand. After application of the hair or hair-like features, the doll is reassembled with a softer filling and underbelly. Other additions may also be added, such as a breathing or heartbeat sound to create a realistic sense of the dolls being alive.
For the people who would like to create one of reborn dolls by themselves, there are kits designed to let the buyer make one without too much effort. Those who truly desire one, however, will buy one no matter the cost, even if it is several hundred dollars. The new trend is to give these dolls to brand new mothers as a memento of their child's birth.
In this age of modernization, it has become a challenge and desire to create dolls that more accurately resemble human children, items which are called Reborn Dolls. Berenguer and Preemie Dolls are good examples of dolls that started this life-like quality. There are a few touches that can turn an ordinary doll into a reborn doll and the directions and equipment to do so can be found in Reborn Doll Kits. Some examples include adding a purple color to the skin, and using softer hair. For those who want a reborn doll but are unable to do it themselves, there are companies that will make custom dolls for their customers.
Published June 19th, 2008
Filed in Kid