Reborn baby's are dolls that are made for many, many different reasons. I have made reborn baby's for nursing homes, autistic children, to replace a baby who passed away, to resemble baby pictures, for collectors, for older children, TV shows, court trials, art shows, etc.
Reborn baby's start out from a sculpt. There are many fabulous sculptors who start from a ball of clay, form out a head, legs, arms, belly plates, and work for several hours.
Once finished they bake them, have them molded, then sent off to make multiple vinyl kits. The kits come in peach and tan colors.
I am a reborn artist. I take a kit, paint several layers of paint, baking many times to make the paint permanent. When I paint, I am adding colors you would never think are needed to make the perfect skin tones of a baby.
You can look on Ebay and see reborns painted by those inexperienced and not artists, then other's that cost more money but look the most realistic. After I spend hours painting a baby to perfection, I root eye lashes and hair.
I use a special needle that only allows 1 to 2 hairs per hole, taking many hours to make the hair look perfectly natural, unlike any babys bought in a store. That's a reason reborns cost so much more, they are made in such a way that a store could never do in a factory.
I spend hours reborning a baby, bringing an unpainted kit to resemble a real looking baby with veining and the coloring of a real baby. I use magnets to make hair bows and pacifiers stay on. I weight each baby to feel real when one holds one of my baby's.
Many often ask what the difference is with a belly plate, full body vinyl, and silicone?
A belly plate is a thin vinyl belly looking plate that ties on with clear string in the back of the baby's cloth body. These are usually only $35-$55 more, and can come on and off as desired. When they are on the baby, the baby will often feel less realistic.
Many use these for photos and appearance only. Silicone baby's are the most expensive, costing $2000 and way more. They are made in silicone, not vinyl. The silicone dolls that have cloth body's are usually much more affordable.
They look and feel the most realistic, but cost so much more and they are reborn very differently in the paints used. I have reborn 2 silicone kits that had cloth body's, it is so much different in the painting and gets a lot of getting used to.
The feeling of them is amazingly real though. The down side to them is silicone collects hair, so they often collect dust and hair easily.
Full vinyl baby's do not have any cloth body's. They feel less realistic then a baby with a cloth body because their limbs can not move as freely or pose as realistically.
Appearance wise, they look more realistic when undressed. Full vinyl body reborns need much better care, because they can break easily if not 100% taken care of as a real baby would be. They are usually more then vinyl babies with cloth bodies because they take longer for us to paint.
Baby's with cloth body's can have non jointed body's, where the arms and legs can not move as freely. Many like these because the baby dressed in a onesie has no cloth body showing, even when diapered with a t shirt on.
The fully jointed body baby's have shoulder and hip cloth joints, which allow the baby to feel very realistic when holding and their arms and legs to move more freely. These baby's body's don't show as long as they are dressed with a full t shirt and shorts/dress/bloomers, etc.
Why do many reborn artists say these are not for children?
The biggest reason is the time spent making a reborn, then the price to buy a good quality reborn baby. As for my baby's I sell, I am proud to make any child happy, just as long as the person buying one of my baby's for a child, understands that they are 100% responsible to be sure to watch the child with parts of the baby that can choke their child. As other reborn artists suggest, these are not intended for young children under 12.
These baby's come with pacifiers that have a magnet glued on the outside. Girl's usually come with a magnetic hair bow. These are small parts that can choke a child.
It is always the responsibility of a reborn artist to say that these are not for young children, because these small parts can choke a child. Please understand that if you decide to buy a reborn baby for a young child, the responsibility is of the parent to watch the child so that safety is number one.
