Piper

 When I was a senior in high school, I became friends with a girl named April.  We had been going to school together for years, but we never really knew each other.  She sat in front of me in Economics, and we became fast friends. By the end of our senior year, she was my best friend.  Life takes twists and turns and we drifted apart when I moved to another state.  Thanks to technology, we were able to catch up a number of years later.  By then, she was a single mother to a toddler named Piper, and I was a single mother to a little boy named Chandler.   We were eventually able to get together in person again, and meet each others kids.  I thought Piper was the most beautiful little girl I had ever seen.  She had beautiful brown hair and the brightest eyes.  She was just stunning to me.  

I think that because I missed real Piper's baby years, when I decided that I wanted to paint doll Piper, I did it with real baby Piper in mind.  This meant dark hair and bright blue eyes.  And this is where the hurdles started.   I could have sworn I ordered blue eyes.  Apparently not.  I could have just ordered some blue eyes and waited, but that's just not who I am.  I'm a "right now" girl.  So, I used the French Grey eyes that I did have.  Turns out, French Gray just looks like Green.  I got them in, and went to apply the lashes.  I encountered more issues there.  And more and more and more.  By the time I got them to look ok, I was so over it.  OVER IT!  And now, Piper just looked like a boy!  Sure, fine, whatever.  I just wanted to finish the doll at this point.  So, I got him dressed and took some pictures, and posted him in my nursery.  Whew!

After a few days, I settled down, and took him down from the site.  It wasn't right, and I knew it wasn't right.  I needed more time to think about it.  I was out shopping one day and I found the cutest little girl outfit.  It was a little pink top and some kind of tights that had feet that looked like shoes.  I immediately thought PIPER IS A GIRL!  So I bought the outfit.  

I got Piper back out of her box, and went to put her outfit on.  It didn't fit.  I found some other things that I thought would work.  The minute I put that bow on her head, all was right with the world.  I fell in love, exactly the way I thought I would before I started painting her.  I look forward to meeting her new mom one day.  I hope that Piper is as special to her, as both of my Pipers have been to me.  

Today, April and I are still friends.  Our kids are thriving and are in their 20's.  

Magnolia

 I was always curious about cuddle babies, and I finally ordered stuff to make one when I needed to get my total high enough for free shipping.  I always thought it would be quick, because it's only one thing that needs to be painted.  I was wrong.  Cuddle babies are just a new and fun thing to learn about.  A lot of the cuddle babies you see are older kits.  Older kits are often made of less desirable vinyl.  When I got Magnolia's head, it was grey.  What's the opposite of grey.  Nothing.  There is not a process for neutralizing grey.  You have to first overcome the grey, and then balance out whatever remains.  Because of this,  Magnolia wasn't high on my list of dolls to paint.  But an email from Carter's would change all of that!

I love a baby in overalls!  A regular reborn can't wear them because the dye would destroy the vinyl.  But a cuddle baby doesn't have that problem!  Yes, you have to be careful not to let the denim rub all over her face, but that's easy enough, right?  Magnolia's face, with her adorable nose, and her little round head seemed like the perfect fit for the super cute overalls.

I painted, and I painted and I painted.  It took me a couple of weeks to finish her because I just kept looking at her and trying to figure out what colors needed to come next.  After a while, I finally started to see progress.  Once I put her eyes in, I felt like we were on our way.  Before I knew it, we were down to the last few touches.  I had already gotten her body completed, and even dressed, so I would periodically prop her head on there just to see her.  I was enamored with her!  And yes, I had a headless doll with overalls on, just sitting around.

I can definitely see things that I would do differently, but I'm really pretty happy with the way she turned out.  She's very sweet to hold and cradle, but she's also very adorable to just look at and adore.  And she's obviously fun to dress up!

Where to begin?

 I've been thinking a lot lately about these dolls and what draws people to feel connected to a particular one over all others.  I decided to start blogging about them as I'm making them, so that if someone sees that doll and likes it, they can also see the process of bringing it to life.  We'll see how it goes.

For now, I thought I would give a little bit of background into how I started making these sweet dolls.  Back in 2009, my mother passed away unexpectedly. I was home one day watching something on TV and I saw a segment on Reborn Dolls.  I had never seen or heard of anything like it.  I am not a doll person, and I never have been, but I adore all things baby!  Baby clothes, baby gear, baby smells, babies....everything.  Even as a very young child, I would love to look at all of the baby stuff in the sears catalog.  I immediately started looking them up online.  I visited Ebay every single day, just looking at the different dolls.  I learned about them, and how they were made.  I determinted that Romie Strydom was my favorite sculptor, and Poppy was my favorite kit.  After at least a year of studying them, I decided that I would try to make one.  I had just moved from Florida back to my home town, I wasn't working, I was in a state of depression, I had a falling out with my best friend, and I was mourning my mother's death, and trying to be a good mom to a teenage son.  It was a lot and keeping my hands and mind busy seemed like a good outlet.  I bought an oven, and a starter kit, and my one and only reborn doll, Poppy.  I needed an example, after all :)

I made my first doll, and I liked him, but he was little and didn't really give me the feeling I was looking for.  So I ordered another one.  Then I decided to make one for my grandmother as a Christmas gift.  Before I knew it, six months had gone by and I had a dining room full of dolls and no money.  And that's where it all got crazy. I decided to try doing a flea market.  At the time, the flea market in my town was in a safe place, and was indoors.  There was a fee to get in (it makes a difference), and there was no one else selling dolls like mine.  It was one weekend a month, and after a couple of months, the attention was crazy.  By the time Christmas rolled around, I would have sold all of them before noon on Saturday.  This went on for quite a while and it started to turn into me just taking orders.  They want this doll, this eye color, this hair color, this gender, etc.  All of the creativity was gone, and so was the joy.  I stopped making them entirely in 2015.  I tossed everything and I was done.  

And then I saw Levi, by Bonnie Brown.  I was living with my boyfriend and we were in the process of planning out future home together.  Immediately, I said I needed a room to make reborn dolls.  He made sure it was added to the list of must haves in our new home.  He's a good egg.

We built our home in 2019, and my baby room was everything I wanted.  There was a great place to put a work table, right by a window, it was upstairs away from everything else...it was perfect.  We moved into our house in January of 2020 and I ordered Levi, and a few other, less expensive kits.  Then Covid happened.  How perfect was this?!?  I was at home all the time!  I even got to work from home, so I could make dolls and work at the same time.  The only problem was my heart wasn't in it.  I made a couple of dolls and then stopped again.  Eventually, I never even went upstairs unless I needed to get my guest room ready for company.  

In 2022, I had one doll that had been sitting in my "doll room" for about 2 years, and I decided to donate it to someone for a silent auction benefiting a dog rescue.  She sold it weeks before the auction even took place.  I had another kit, so I decided to make another one for the auction.  And so it began again.  My heart was in it, and it was fun again.   It's been almost a year now.  I'm so happy to be painting and making these dolls again.  I love each and every one of them.  I choose each one of them.  I don't just make the dolls that I think will fetch a good price, and I don't do the same ones over and over again.  I did do three Quinbees because I love that kit so much.  The vinyl is so nice, the face is so beautiful, and she is such a pleasure to hold.

Anyway....stay tuned for all of the sweetest new babies that are coming to my nursery!