My Reborn Photography Tutorial

It's finally done, whew! I hope you find this useful, please let me know what do you think, and especially if you learn from it, I want to hear from you! Thank you! ^__^ To go to the tut, please click the image!

Sixth Doll - Lilah (Vivien Kit)

I named her Lilah and she is staying with me. I wuv her! So yesterday one of my order arrived, and there's a wig in it, it's blonde tho, I want her to have brown hair, but we'll see which one I like better. For now I use the blonde hair temporary just for photoshoot. She is so photogenic, it was a lot of fun.

Click HERE for more photos of Lilah in a slide show.

Sixth Doll - Vivien Kit

My 6th doll is this cute kit called Vivien, by Evelina Wosnjuk. I started yesterday afternoon. Just finished her face detailings. Limbs are done, all blushed and all creases been painted. Just need to do the manicure and pedicure and we are done, baby! This Vivien kit is from the old batch which had orangey tone to it, so I had to do extra layers of base to neutralize it. But all the hardwork paid off. I'm very happy with how she turned out.

I made a booboo on this cutiepie tho, I caused the top of head to have a couple of bumps, so I can't root her hair cause it will showed, the only think I can do is put baby wig on her. We'll see. She will be staying with me cause this little trooper could be my masterpiece so far. I really think she is very life like. I can't wait to assemble her and take pictures. But I have to wait a week probably, I have to order mohair wig for her.

Fifth Doll - Kylin (Adopted)

She's finally done, officially reborned on April 15th, 2009. She's beautiful, with gorgeous set of blue eyes and full blonde hair that is versatile to style, she can have cute curls, or straight hair or combination of both. Kylin was adopted on May 6th, 2009, and is on her way to her new mommy.

Click HERE to view more pics of her in a slide show. Thank you!

Fifth Doll - Gorgeous Kylin

I'm so very very excited working on Kylin. This is my favorite kit so far, it's the first real size doll I make, she has the most beautiful face I can't get over it. I can't wait to see her finished. I started at 7.17pm today. And finished doing her skin base at 3.40am!!! I want her to be perfect. She has 1 skin tone base, and additional 3 layers for the subtle mottling effect. I'm happy.

Update on April 3rd, 2009 - She's finished! Woohoo!!!
Well, almost, I'm using temporary eyes, still waiting for new eyes on the mail, and no eyelashes yet. I finished her hair last night, well, early morning actually. I spent 5 days working on her full blonde hair. I took some pictures just for fun, she is not officially 'reborned' yet until she got her new eyes and eyelashes. I'm so in love with her! I've been playing with her all day. It feels so good to hug her. If you're into cute things and especially these baby dolls, you will understand, if you don't understand and think I'm crazy, I'd say: "What the heck are you doing checking doll blog, you freak?!" LOL. Seriously it feels good, it makes me happy. That's why there's 'theraphy dolls', I kinda understand the purpose of those now. I think it works. Without further ado, here's my brand new baby. My sweet Kylin!

Fourth Doll - Missy

Her coloring is done, I'm rooting her hair right now. Been working on her on and off for 3 weeks I think. Will come back with update and photos when she's done.

Update on May 5th, 2009:
Hm.. Not sure if I'll ever get to finish her, I keep getting these new kits that I can't wait to reborn. We'll see. I'll finish her someday. ^__^

Third Doll - Sera (Adopted)

Click HERE for more photos of Sera in a slide show.

I started Sera a few days ago. I work on her skin for 3 days, taking my time now. Sera is the first other brand that I do. I did 2 Secrist dolls so far. Sera is from Bountiful Baby, she is very soft, and her color is peach. I have to get used to color it, it absorb color easier than Secrist dolls, so I kinda had to add a few more layers to fix the previous that were a bit too strong. I'm pretty happy, I didn't plan this but since I'm not used to the doll kit, she turned to have peaches and cream complexion. I like it, but I found out that I prefer to do a lighter color doll kit like Secrist. If Secrist dolls are not hard, I would love to keep doing them. It's a pain to root those kits. Speaking of rooting, I bought a very good rooting tutorial and my skill is improving so much. Thank you Danielle!

Sera was adopted on March 28th, 2009. She lives in UK now with her new mommy.

Second Doll - Sam (Adopted)

Click HERE for more photos of Sam in a slide show.

I was too busy to update this past week. My shipment arrived, so I get to finish rooting Sam's hair. I rooted her hair very sparsely. But good news is with the new needles I didn't even bent it. I think this had something to do with the first batch of needles, maybe they were too skinny.

Still having troubles doing it properly tho, I'm so lost. There's a tutorial on Youtube, she basically just sit there and jammed her needles to the doll's head, there's not much tips and tricks, rooting hair is still scary to me. So Sam's hair is okay but I know I need to do something about my rooting skill.

So my friend Elly visited me a couple of days ago and she saw Sam, she started to carry her around and won't put her down. I was thinking "Uh oh, somebody's in love". Yes she did, so she adopted Sam! I can't believe I made a sale already. I was planning to test the market this week and try to sell Sam on Ebay. I'm so happy she was adopted by a friend, I know she will be spoiled rotten by sweet Elly! ^__^ Oh, Elly changed her name to Caroline. Sweet name!

Second Doll, Sam - The Process 2

So, this is the second day of working on Sam. Can't wait to finish her!

- 12.15pm: Start working. more touch up on the skin and nails & lips.
- 01.02pm: Out of the oven, now on to painting eyebrows. I use a mix of Skin 07, Burnt Umber and a bit of Yellow. I'm happy with the result. Light and faint the way I wanted it. Then I added a bit more brown on the color mix and paint hair on her head, just the outer section, kinda could use it for guidance when rooting too. Take a while but I'm pretty happy with the result.
- 2.34pm: Out of the oven for the last time. Will start rooting when it's cool.
- 3.10pm: Start hair rooting. Decided to use just the needle without the handle, actually it makes my life easier.
- 3.32pm: Broke my needle, I have one left. Uh oh.
- 4.50pm: Broke the last needle, I'm so %^$#@%^&* Pissed! I can't work now, and I have to wait for the new needles I ordered a couple weeks ago. AAARGH!!!!!!!!

Second Doll, Sam - The Process 1

My shipment from MacPhearson arrived today, in it, a premie doll kit called 'Gumdrop' from Secrist Co. I practice using this line because they are small (means a bit faster to work on than the bigger size) and cheaper, and they have many cute choices. Gumdrop is chubby and have closed eyes. It will be easy to attach the eyelashes, oh yeah! (",) I'm keeping a record step by step working on her. I will experiment with the color mix too. And I will use some tools I made myself. It's all about adventure on this one. (",)

- 5.00pm: Start working. Putting base skin color, mix of Skin 08 & 07. Realized I use number 08 a lot and I'm almost out of it. (Me no likey Skin o7!).
- 5.48pm: Out of the oven for the first time. Mint green color is added.
- 6.34pm: Out of the oven for the 2nd times. Painted my own color mix which are Skin 07, Phthalo Green and a wee bit of Pink.
- 7.42pm: Out of the oven for the 3rd times. I draw the veins. Easy Peasy. :P
- 8.44pm: Out of the oven for the 4th times. Time for blushing, it's kinda more fun right now, although my back is killing me by now.
- 10.09: Coming out of the oven for the 5th times. I do many things at this point, more blushing, and mottling, using the homemade tools. Then detailing, painting the creases. Wait a bit, another layer of color for the mottling effect. I am so happy with the result. Holy Molly!!! ^__^
- 11.39pm: Coming out of the oven for the 6th times. More painting on creases, more detailing on the skin.
- 1.25am: I'm beat. Exhausted, the fume kinda make me dizzy, I opened the window but can't be too long because it's cold out. Painting the nails and lips. More detailing, creases and face, It's late so I can't really tell if the face might be too red. I will add a couple more layers tomorrow if it's too red. I totally forgot the eyebrows, so I still have to do painting tomorrow. Sigh.

At least I'm done. 95%. I'll root the hair tomorrow. God, that is the hardest part. Yikes!

Thank you sweet Debbie!

I talk online to this sweet lady named Debbie, she read my blog and told me that they actually don't paint the inside of the doll anymore because the paint could leach overtime and cause bruising on the dolls. LOL. I feel so stupid, but so thankful to her. I will probably find out about this sooner or later, but because of her I only make this mistake once. Thank you so much, sweet Debbie. I'll never forget this kind gesture.

I decided also, I will not find a course for this, I will do research online and practice a lot. For this particular craft, I find that I can teach myself. Just like glass melting, practice make perfect.

Impatient Monkey

Argh! I hate waiting. Soon as Bianca's done, I want to do another one, you know, because practice make perfect. I ordered 2 doll kits and some more important tools. I only use regular brushes working on Bianca, and I know if I use better brushes it will make a world of difference. Plus there's this 'Berrymaker' tools, to do 'mottling' on the skin, I can't wait to try those. I have to wait at least 2 weeks from today. This is killing me!

Bianca - The First Baby!

Oh my God, I can't believe she is done. I work on her for 3 days now. Well, I ruined one of the eyelashes, so I need to buy a new pair and try again, but other than that, she is done, baby! World, meet Bianca, she is a premie baby, she was 'born' at exactly 8.30pm today. So this date will be her official 'birthday'. She is my first ever reborn doll, so I'm still proud of her even though she is not perfect, I don't know if this the mother in me, but I really think she is cute. Not perfect but pretty darn cute.

The most difficult is rooting the hair I must say, I broke 8 needles on this doll! I think after about 4 dolls I'll get the hang of it. I hope. Oh and attaching the eyelashes! OMG! I think I spent 20 minutes to attach the left one and I finally ruin it! %^&*$#@#*$!!! Just for the record, I did everything by the book, I painted her in layers to get depth, I spent 8 hours of painting her head and limbs. I painted her inside and out and bake her between each layers. No creases left unattended. :) Then I rooted her hair for about 8 hours on the next day. One strand at the time. I will have to spend more hours in this next time, to achieve better and realistic result, like real human baby hair.

I found that I was discouraged a couple of times working on this new type of craft, I think it's just my nature, I'm a perfectionist, if I can't do it well I wouldn't do it at all. Right now, I think I can do this, I don't think I will be an expert in this, but I think I can do this well especially if I practice a lot. I also found, that assembling the doll at the end was very exciting and to see her assembled and not 'pieces' anymore, was very rewarding. Taking the photos was fun too, and unlike real babies, she sat still for me, hee hee... Oh, click on the photos to view them larger.