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Monday, February 27, 2012

ARTICLE - HOLDING FAKE BABY HELPED ME GET OVER HEARTACHE OF LOSING MY CHILD

'Holding fake baby helped me get over heartache of losing my child'

We meet mums whose kids are plastic 

 

A BUNCH of doting mums rock their babies while chatting over coffee just like any other mothers' group – except these tots are made of PLASTIC. 

 

The eerily lifelike replica infants are known as "reborn dolls" and this get-together is Britain's only fake baby club.
It meets once a month behind closed doors in Brownhills, near Birmingham, and there is just one subject on the womens' agenda — their love of reborn dolls.
"This is a place where women can come with their dolls and treat them like real babies without fear of judgment or abuse," explains organiser Suzanne Lewis, who runs a shop selling the dolls.
"This is a safe environment for them to indulge their love of reborns with like-minded women."
The first reborn doll was created in the US in the early Nineties and the phenomenon spread to Britain.
It came to most people's attention after the Channel 4 documentary My Fake Baby where a woman was seen wheeling her baby around the streets in a pram.
Suzanne, the mum of two teenage boys, says: "Some women would love to be able to push their babies around the streets in a pram but after My Fake Baby we found the abuse level towards women and their reborns shot up. So I hit upon the idea of having a club."


Suzanne, 45, from Brownhills, adds: "All life has come through my shop doors since I opened my reborn dolly shop seven years ago.
"I've heard incredible stories. We get a lot of women who've lost children and are looking to replace them but they are the minority.
"I know my dolly club will polarise opinion but we're not hurting anyone, so why not?"
One of the members of Suzanne's group is Emma Weaver, 36, a mum of six from Stourbridge in the West Midlands. She was four months pregnant with her fifth child when she lost the baby.
She says: "It was an absolutely traumatic time. I adored being pregnant and had totally bonded with the life inside me. Afterwards I was bereft.
"I still felt pregnant and my hormones were raging but I had nothing to show for it. My arms literally ached to hold a baby, so I looked on eBay. It was there I found Bella.

 

"She was so tiny, like a prem baby, and reminded me of the tiny life I'd lost. When she arrived I was stunned to see how she felt like a real baby in my arms. Her body is so soft, her features so lifelike and I need to support her head too. Bella has brought enormous joy to my family's life and to me. I love cuddling her in the evening — I call it my cuddle therapy time."
Emma says her husband Thomas, a forklift truck driver, loves cuddling her too and she thinks it has helped him to cope with their loss.
She adds: "Five years on I have had another real child, a daughter, so today I have five daughters and one son — oh, and Bella, of course.
"Bella came into my life when I needed her most and she is very, very special to me.
"She sleeps in a moses basket next to our bed and when I take her out I put her in her real car seat. I used to take her to the shops but stopped because I got so much abuse from strangers saying I should be ashamed of myself.
"It's so sad I've had to stop taking her out in public — she's like a real daughter to me and I am proud of her."


Another member of the group is Andrea, who asks not to have her last name revealed.
She explains that two-and-a-half years ago her "beautiful and spirited" 20-year-old daughter Vicky died.
Andrea says: "The gulf her death left in my life was enormous. Words cannot describe the utter agony and raw pain of my grief.
"I tried everything: counselling, medication — I even bought a puppy — but they didn't even touch my pain.
"I had sunk to rock bottom. One day I was looking on eBay and something made me type baby doll into the search engine. Up came page upon page of reborn dolls.
"One stood out so much it made me gasp — a baby doll that was the absolute spit of my Vicky when she was a newborn.
"My baby doll arrived exactly two years to the date Vicky died.


"When I opened the box my heart stopped. 'This is baby Vic,' I gasped. She was identical. I can't even begin to describe the joy she has brought to my world. Baby Vic has saved my life."
Andrea lives alone and her reborn has her own nursery with a wardrobe full of gorgeous clothes.
She says: "She has a pram, two moses baskets and a cot.
"I'd love to push her round the streets but I know I'll get looks.
"I get her up in the morning and dress her carefully in some pretty clothes, then I hold her close to me. Having baby Vic in my arms has filled the void left by Vicky's death.
"My other children are 29 and 26 and they can see the difference in me, so they don't judge me.
"Soon I will have three baby dolls. Then I can hold them close, lock them away from the world and keep them safe. At least I know that they will never die or leave me."
Shaz Davies, 55, from Willenhall, West Mids, helps Suzanne to make the dolls.
She says: "My husband Stephen died last April and I help to care for my three grandchildren. I have always been into crafts and when I found out about the shop, I called Suzanne and now I help make the dolls. The thing I love most is the painstaking process of micro-rooting, where you attach the hair to the doll's head strand by strand. An entire head can take up to 60 hours.
"I really believe being a reborner has stopped me having a breakdown. I get such joy from making my babies. At least these ones don't answer me back."


And Claire Cope, 38, from Brownhills, says: "These dolls are so therapeutic — they should be available on the NHS."
The mum of three boys adds: "I have an autistic son who is ten now. I knew he was special the minute he was born but he wasn't diagnosed until he was four.
"It has been difficult at times. Autistic children aren't good with affection. He'd rather shake your hand than give you a kiss.
"Dealing with my reborn dolls is more straightforward and bringing them to life is the ultimate escape."
Claire has 20 dolls at home and can't bear to be parted from them.
She says: "I have some in a crib next to my bed and some in a pram in the conservatory. My husband groans when I bring another baby home."
Tracy Cane, 47, from Hednesford, Staffs, says now her four sons have grown up, she felt totally lost and didn't know what to do.
She adds: "My husband had seen Suzanne's shop so we went in. Now I just couldn't bear to part with my babies — Sophie, Oliver, Layla, Ember, Lily Rose and Emma.
"It's lovely to have girls at last after having four real sons.
"The women who come to these clubs aren't just friends, they're like my family.
"We laugh together, we cry together, but most of all we just love our dolls."

 

Friday, February 24, 2012

ARGH! I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO GET HUBBY TO ORDER THIS CUSTOM BABY BODY SUIT..To Be Met With Excuses! ARGH!



it is so frustrating to me when i have an idea, that could potentially launch another idea off into a paying market, theres always ALWAYS some sort of roadblock.

for severla days i have reminded hubby i needed to get this custom baby body suit (onzie) to have for my doll to wear, so i can have his baby pic ON something, and not have to carry around a picture that i could potentially lose.

so i came up with the idea to make a custom onzie with my sosn infant pic on it, so it would be easy for ppl to see the resemblance from the doll to my son.

and every day...there was some reason i couldnt get it..over and over and over.

im not gonna lie, it really frustrates me!
and ticks me off.

just admit you forgot! just say we dont have it in the budget right now!
DO NOT keep leading me on with excuse after excuse after excuse and making me think we can get it.

makes me so mad!

anyway, i have to wait till the 5th to get it...wonder what the excuse will be that day?

MICHELLE

Monday, February 20, 2012

ORDERED MORE NEEDLES, NEEDLE CUTTER, AIR DRY GLOSS

ordered more rooting needles, just a bit larger than the ones i got with my  complete order (i got 5 36 gauge) so i ordered the next size up, its what was available. and i decided to also get a rotting needle cutter, and opted for the uncut needles, i can ger aprox, 28 for just about 50 cents a shot, as apposed to 1 dollar a needle. seems more cost effective.

i also bought the snipper. cheap one. well go to the hardware store and try to buy a bterr one later on.

as well as, some air dry gloss...to make the lips and eyes look and appear to be wet.

should have that by wed/thursday.

still rooting my dolls head, but taking my time, because im down to just the 2 last needles and i dont want to  break the one im using and then start with the next one to break it as well...so, im rooting very slowly at present.
im about ...oh, maybe 1/5 till im done, 4/5th completed.

then onto gluing the hair to the inside of the head, and weighting the limbs, head and body, then assembly.
and...dressing, and photographing him.
cant wait.

my 1st doll! im so proud of him!

MICHELLE

Saturday, February 18, 2012

A WAY TO ADVERTISE AND GIVE ADDITIONAL CLOTHING...Customized Outfits For Baby

so, i have come up with this fantastic idea to promote and advertise my Wit & Whimzy Reborn Nursery.

idea 1st started with me figuring out a way to display my sons image on/or near my reborn of him.without having to hold or carry a picture of him.

so, i was thinking about putting his image on a onzie.

which sent me into 2 different places i have accounts and can customize  clothes.
i hoped they would have  baby body suits (or as commonly refered to as Onzies).
CafePress.com has Baby Body Suits from 0-3 months, all the way up to 24 months. PERFECT! (represented in the image above)
started my idea there. got it all worked up, and ran into a snag when i realized theres about a bajillion steps to posting your product on the storefront...a bit technical.
i originally had wanted to use my favorite site for customizing clothes which is:
ZAZZLE.com but their infant clothes start at 6-9 months. nothing below that. and i believe goes up to 24 months as well.
well, as much as i dont like having to go UP in the clothing, i created some babywear there. and, have had no issue with them uploading (with one button publishing, ya hearing me cafepress.com?!?!?!) to that storefront.

so, i have several items up on my storefront there. and am continuing to create different things.
such as: HOLIDAY WEAR.

yup, what the heck? someone might want to buy or get a simple baby body suit for their reborn that expresses the holiday.
and i thought, whatever baby i sell, id slap one of those in, along with just a logo one, and theres 2 outfits that have my reborn nursery name on them.

i also, along the lines of thinking about my sosns custom baby body suit, with his newborn image on it, thought it would be a nice gesture to put in every sale, a custom reborn baby body suit with that particular doll on it (like my sons image) to show off the baby on a onzie.
or if im commissioned to do a custom...id put that particular babys pic on the onzie as i have done my sons, and let that baby have that as a piece of advertizement, and sharing.

what mother wouldnt like their infants face on the front of a onzie that the commissioned doll will be wearing when they arrive at the house of the mother? its a great way to show off how much the doll looks like the original child.

but moreover, its a way to spred my Nursery name around, and give another clothing option to the new mommy.




 when i have my custom of my son daniel done, and have purchased a baby body suit, ill have another post of what im talking about.

MICHELLE

TECHNOLOGY - A NEW SERVICE CALLED 'PINWHEEL'

Why You’ll Soon Be Using a Wonderful Little Service Called Pinwheel to Discover the World

 

"We're doing things a little bit differently," Heather Champ told me.
No, wait. That's not right. "We're trying to stay under the radar," is what she said, which I interpreted to mean she was doing something new and different that they didn't want anyone knowing about. We were sitting in my office, in a comfortable SAYL desk chair almost exactly two months ago. Or at least, I was sitting in the chair, alone, reading an email from Champ. I was about to learn about the hottest new service around. A highly-anticipated, stealth mode start up that I knew everyone would be talking about, and using, six months from now. The only question I had was, what is it?
I had been sent an email summons to preview the new thing from Caterina Fake, founder of Flickr and Hunch, and her team of incredibly talented developers, designers, and all around Web-based badasses (including Heather). I was to be under FrieNDA.2 This was new territory for me, and I think, for Fake. She is not exactly known for sharing details of as-yet-unannounced products. And of course, most people do not want to be my friend.
I knew it wasn't a new photo sharing site like Flickr. Or decision-making thingie along the lines of Hunch. Those had already been done. It was about Knotes, or, as Fake now calls it everywhere, Pinwheel.3
And then the reveal: Knotes—sorry Pinwheel—would be like a Flickr for geotagged notes. A service that lets you collect and share notes based on locations. I love location-based services and apps, and have a long-running interest in them. And Pinwheel is, very much, something I've always wanted. A way to transmit and receive information about particular locations that isn't tied to one action—like a checkin, or a game.
I've been using Pinwheel for two months, on my MacBook Air and iPhone. It's good, and I look forward to it getting better. It's a beta, incomplete and with bugs, but it feels solid and full of promise.
The notes are like little messages in bottles, carrying both current events and nostalgic messages out of the past. They give me insight into my friends' lives—their joys, their pains, their passions—and into those of strangers too. It's made me more aware of the world I live in, and given me the chance to share my world with my friends.
It's probably the best new thing I've used right out of the gate since I logged onto Instagram for the first time a little more than a year ago. I love it, straight up.
Major New Features:
  • Pinwheel lets anyone leave a note tagged to a particular location.
  • You can leave both text and images.
  • You can tag notes so they are searchable.
  • You can leave notes privately, or publicly.
    You can leave them for all your friends to see, or the world to see, or for just one or two (or ten) select people. You can leave them so that only you can see them. ("Don't forget to buy that light your wife loved next time you are here without her.")
  • People can leave notes for you to find.
    Because you can enter location data on where you live and work into Pinwheel, without revealing it publicly, others can leave notes for you at your home or your office, without actually knowing where either of those are.
  • You can follow other people, to see the notes they leave.
  • Businesses can leave location-based advertisements. These are called "sponsored notes."
Fake has lots of notes. Most are articulate, precise, and rehearsed. Yet others are casual and spur of the moment. I find myself using it in the same way. I've written long travelogues about my time in Kuwait, and short inspired blasts about New Year's Day.
I leave a lot of private notes, and I like that. But the best part is reading other people's notes. There are at least three ways to wade in: by location, by friends, and by tags. And in the past few months, I've done all of those.
Location is serendipitous. I have a shortcut to the site on my phone's home screen—it works well as a mobile web app—and I pop it open in new locations, and bump into all kinds of new ideas that often feel like secrets. These stories have always been here, I just didn't know about them before. Sometimes people leave news-as-notes. The backstory of a house fire, which I can read while looking at the newly-charred structure in my neighborhood. Sometimes these are tips. ("The best hidden beach on Highway One.") And often, they are deeply personal.
When I look at the notes left by my friends, I get to see the people I know talk about the places they inhabit. It lends itself to storytelling, confession and advice. Births. Deaths. Dates. Triumphs and disasters.
Tags offer another avenue of exploration. Search for the food tag and drill down by location to see what's around. Or if I want to discover a new vacation spot, I can check out the beach tag.
But mostly, this is a service very much in development. The private beta just launched yesterday, and even that slow roll out has greatly expanded the user base. People are going to use Pinwheel for all kinds of unexpected things, in all kinds of unexpected ways.
They will pop open their laptops and phones and see what's around them, or better yet, describe it. They will use it to tell stories and play games and reveal themselves to the world, and use it to learn about the world themselves. It is as wonderful in an old haunt as it is in somewhere utterly unfamiliar. Because even those places we know best, we often know nothing about. In terms of approaching how to use location as a tool, and a toy, and a treasure chest, Pinwheel is, I say, exactly right.
And as it grows and grows, it's just going to get better and better. It will be useful, and fun. It will be the entire world—all of it—annotated.

Would you like to join Pinwheel? I have one invitation left. Whoever leaves my favorite note in the comments below, linked to map data, gets it. This is pretty open-ended, so as long as you don't violate our comment policy, go nuts. 1. Apologies to John Gruber
2. An N.D.A., or non-disclosure agreement, being the more or less standard contract one is often asked to sign before previewing a new product. The FrieNDA? It's just a more informal arrangement. It was basically a way of saying, "please be cool and don't blow this."
3. Before launching in private beta yesterday, the alpha of the product was called Knotes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
i know, your wondering WHY id have a post about a location map online program in THIS bog about reborn dolls..lol
dont worry, i have a tie-in for its reason.

i had seen not long ago, a map that i could embed into a website that i could tag with locations, as well as upload images, very basic, wasnt very pretty...
got me to thinking.
how awesome it would be to be able to post a pic of the doll i sold to what country/state.
and have that be a location tagger for  all the babies i sold online to other individuals.

then i saw this article...
and i can see the thought i had based on the other idea, coming to life.

i sent the author of the article a question in regards to embedding this into webpages for that very use. waiting on a reply..
we shall see, would be really cool idea to have on a web page. :)

MICHELLE

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

ARTICLE - CANADIAN REBORN DOLL ARTIST JAN CZUBA IN EXPOSE


 CANADIAN REBORN DOLL ARTIST JAN CZUBA IN EXPOSE

Burlington based doll maker Jan Czuba has been covered by Lifelike Dolls Magazine and her realistic collector dolls have once again reached the limelight. Read on to find out more...

Newsagency "The Spec" have published a report about Jan Czuba and we can bring you the highlights of this fascinating read:
Jan Czuba’s home is a baby factory. Every year the Burlington woman gives birth to more than two dozen babies.
Czuba is a reborner, an artist who specializes in creating dolls that are so realistic they look as if they may start crying at any moment.
To Czuba, the dolls are simply works of art to be valued no less than a realistic portrait.
“It’s like a canvas,” she explains. “I just love seeing the doll come to life and making someone happy.”
Czuba has long been a doll collector and used to make Cabbage Patch dolls in the past.
Czuba, who has made more than 100 dolls, has customers across North America and Europe.
“Everyone says that they open the box and it just takes their breath away.”
She is well aware some people find reborns creepy and don’t understand the attraction. Public perception of her craft hasn’t been helped by a tiny segment of collectors who treat the dolls like real babies, sometimes to replace a child.
If you would like one of Jans babies you can find out more through her website by clicking on this link



Sunday, February 12, 2012

ARTICLE = LIFE-LIKE DOLLS USED FOR THERAPY RAISES CONCERNS

Life-like dolls used for therapy raises concerns 

 

 Published on Feb 12, 2012
 
 They look like real babies, feel like real babies and, with eyes closed, sleep like real babies.
'They are so amazingly life- like,' exclaimed Mrs Lilly Tan, a housewife and mother of three boys. She was at Great World City mall when she came across these dolls.
Yes, dolls. They first emerged in the 1990s in the US, where hobbyists wanting more realistic, human-like dolls modified the store-bought vinyl variants.

 First sold over the Internet, they are now available in stores. Called baby dolls or reborn dolls, they recently became available in Singapore - at Motherswork, a one-stop shop for mothers and children.


REBORN DOLL THERAPY FOR DEMENTIA
In the medical world, the use of reborn doll therapy has not been scientifically established.
There have been a few accounts and experiences of when the dolls produced positive effects in dementia and Alzheimer's patients.
For instance, a home care service in Derbyshire, Britain, reported, in the early part of 2008, the effects of reborn dolls on their patients with Alzheimer's disease.
It has largely reduced the number of patients who take psychotropic drugs - from 92 per cent to 28 per cent.
Such dolls apparently help reduce withdrawal issues and can help overcome communication problems between the patient and the carer.
It also appears that the therapy is most helpful among female dementia patients. They are found to respond more positively with the reborn dolls as the dolls help them remember the times when they were mothers.
The therapy was discussed at a British Psychological Society Conference in 2010 as a prospect for improving the mental health of Alzheimer's and dementia patients in long-term care facilities.
Neurologist Nagaendran Kandiah told The Sunday Times that doll therapy would be a form of reminiscence therapy.
'Though reminiscence therapy as a whole lacks evidence for effectiveness in dementia, it is believed to help reduce anxiety and other challenging behaviours,' he said.
He added that it may be beneficial, along with other behavioural modifications, in patients with advanced dementia.
Judith Tan

Thursday, February 9, 2012

ARTICLE - REBORN DOLLS GIVE LIFE TO AN ART FORM

Reborn' dolls give life to an art form

Published 11:35 a.m., Thursday, February 9, 2012
Like many artists, Dianna Matthews' works require layers of paint, a little patience and a lot of passion.
Her canvas, on the other hand, is a little unusual — it's more likely to be found cradled in a little girl's arms than resting on an easel.
Matthews, 49, an independent insurance agent from Corpus Christi, is what is known in the doll making and collecting world as a “reborn” artist or a “reborner” — someone who transforms a regular doll or a doll kit into a collectible that looks like a real baby.
“I have been doing this since 2001,” says Matthews, who will be one of many reborners at the 20th annual Hill Country Doll Show and Sale on Saturday in New Braunfels. “I had been taking care of my mother; she had cancer, and I just happened to be at work looking at eBay and I came across a reborn doll.”
Matthews bought the reborn doll for her mother “so she could use it to keep her mind off her pain, and then I turned around and had to buy me one.”
“If I kept on doing this, I was going to go broke,” she said with a chuckle. “So that's when I decided that I was going to start making them.”
Her first attempt was memorable, if less than stellar.
“Back then ... you went to Wal-Mart or Kmart to get an Ashton Drake or some other kind of doll, and you'd take it apart and take all the paint off and start painting it from scratch,” she says. “And then I went to Hobby Lobby and got some yarn for the hair, which you're not really supposed to do; you're supposed to use mohair.
“When I showed my husband the first doll I did, he said, ‘I hope you're not going into the doll-making business because she looks like Chucky.'”
Reborners like Matthews — whose creations now look much like real babies, not killer dolls from a horror movie — will be featured in a segment of NBC's “Today Show” that will be filmed at the doll show Saturday. Their art form has rapidly expanded since its debut in the early 2000s, when Matthews estimates reborns accounted for about 10 percent of the doll making and collecting hobby. That number is now closer to 40 percent to 60 percent, she estimates.
People often think reborn dolls are real babies when they first see one.
“Oh yes, they laugh about it and some people are kind of scared to touch them because they look so real,” Matthews said.
Because reborns look so real, one San Antonio artist had to do some fast explaining at a fast-food restaurant.
Tanya Sada, 41, says she was sitting at a McDonald's and working on a reborn's hair one day when a woman came up to her and demanded to know why she was “poking that baby's head.”
Sada, a graphic artist who has studied in Florence, Italy, also paints murals in private homes and churches. She says she enjoys the realism of the reborns she's made since 2005.
“I like them because of the art in them,” she says.
Because of the intricate work and attention to detail that go into reborns, they aren't sold cheaply — prices can run into the hundreds of dollars.
Reborn artist Patricia Jarrard, 66, of Fresno explains the process:
It begins with washing a kit and getting all the oils off of the molding. Next come dozens of layers of heat-setting paint to give the reborn a mottled or veined effect. The vinyl — Jarrard recommends German-manufactured vinyl — must be baked. Then there's more painting, drying, gluing, rooting of the finest shearings of mohair strands for hair, filling parts of the reborn with glass beads, polyester stuffing and poly pellets, and more attention to detail, such as the adding of eyelashes and eyebrows.
Jarrard said that artistic process attracted her to reborning.
“I used to paint on canvas, and I used to do wedding cakes and catering,” she says. “Some art (people) hung on their walls, and some of my art they ate.”
Dolls are different.
“People my age played with dolls and we never just stopped playing,” Jarrard said. “You don't grow old playing with dolls — you grow old if you don't play with dolls. We're all still little girls at heart”

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

REBORN RESOURCES - DVD - MAKING REBORN BABY DOLLS BY DENISE PRATT

At last, an instructional video with Denise Pratt!

This 90 minute video was produced by Johnston Original Artdoll/ProSculpt LLC.

See Press Release below:

Date: March 10th, 2009
From: Johnston Original Artdolls/ProSculpt LLC
Contact: Jack Johnston
Subject: "Making Reborn Baby Dolls"
Featuring: Denise Pratt of Bountiful Baby
purchase at: BountifulBaby.com

We are proud to announce the release of our newest educational film, "Making Reborn Baby Dolls". We have seen many trends enter the industry, one of the newest and perhaps the most popular in recent years is Reborning. To keep up with the trends and to bring our audience the finest in educational doll making videos, we have asked Denise Pratt to sit as our artist in this most recent release. Denise is one of the premier one-of-a-kind Master sculptors and reborn artists in the nation. This 90 minute digital film clearly shows how to make a complete reborn baby doll. We've filmed Denise in the complete process of painting, micro-rooting mohair, assembling the body and costuming this spectacular realistic baby. More information and scores of babies may be seen at artdolls.com and bountifulbaby.com.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

TUTORIAL - GENESIS HEAT SET PAINT -COLOR #9 -AIR DRY GLOSS

Genesis Instructions
#9: Air Dry Gloss
#9 (Air Dry Gloss Varnish) 
Paint the nails and lips using your size 2 filbert brush. Allow this medium to air dry.

Your vinyl parts are now painted and you are ready to add hair to your baby!

ORIGINAL TUTORIAL CAN BE FOUND HERE 

TUTORIAL - GENESIS HEAT SET PAINT -COLOR #8 - MATTE VARNISH

Genesis Instructions
#8: Matte Varnish
Varnish #8 (Matte Varnish) This optional medium removes shine from the doll and gives a slight texture to the baby's skin. Use this medium straight or slightly thinned if you prefer. Apply with a cosmetic wedge with a pouncing motion until it cover the piece lightly and evenly. Do not cover the nails and lips with this medium.
Bake: Bake again in the same manner as mentioned before.
Important!
  • Use an accurate oven thermomoter and a timer when baking the doll. Do not trust your regular oven thermometer, as they are often very inaccurate! Bountiful Baby sells oven thermometers, if you need one.
  • Have your oven be exclusively for the use of Genesis paints. Do not also bake food in the oven, or otherwise use it for any other purposes.
  • We recommend that you use a special type of oven called a "convection oven" for heat setting Genesis paints, because it heats more uniformly and without "hot spots". At Bountiful Baby, we use a convection oven that we bought at WalMart for $200. If you use some other type of oven, it could result in overheated "hot spots" in/on your vinyl parts, with the associated fuming risks of overheated vinyl. This applies to toaster ovens, roaster ovens, or any other electric or gas oven. We recommend that you do not use them-- that you use a dedicated convection oven instead.
  • Put your convection oven in a well-ventilated place. If you "overbake" vinyl, it will emit fumes, as any overheated vinyl will do. So be careful not to set the temperature too high, or to let it bake too long. And take suitable ventilation precautions. Even if it doesn’t burn, hot vinyl fumes have the potential to be toxic.
  • We recommend that you use "test parts" to initially set your oven temperature and baking time. Test parts are available from Bountiful Baby at a very nominal cost.
  • Remember, you only want to heat the vinyl sufficiently to cure the Genesis paint, and nothing more! It is your responsibility to reach that point, and not exceed it.
  • ORIGINAL TUTORIAL CAN BE FOUND HERE

TUTORIAL - GENESIS HEAT SET PAINT -COLOR #7 - NAIL TIP

Genesis Instructions
Color #7: Nail Tip


 Color #7 (Nail Tip). Thin this color and add to the nail tips using a toothpick or your liner brush.
After this step look your doll over carefully. If there are any areas that you have too much paint, dab them with a cosmetic wedge dipped in Odorless thinner. If there is any touch up work you would like to do, now is the best time.





Bake: Bake at 260 F for 8 minutes. Use an oven thermometer to make sure it does not get too hot. Place the vinyl parts on a baking dish in a bed of poly-fil. I would have a couple inches of thickness between the parts and the bottom or sides of the pan to prevent melting. Never leave your doll unattended while baking.
This time test the cure of the paint (to make sure it is dry) when the doll is cool by wiping the doll lightly with a damp cotton swab. If no color comes back off then the paint is cured, if color comes off bake again for 5 more minutes and test again when cool. If still not cured bake again, until cured, but never longer than 10 minutes at a time.
Important!
  • Use an accurate oven thermomoter and a timer when baking the doll. Do not trust your regular oven thermometer, as they are often very inaccurate! Bountiful Baby sells oven thermometers, if you need one.
  • Have your oven be exclusively for the use of Genesis paints. Do not also bake food in the oven, or otherwise use it for any other purposes.
  • We recommend that you use a special type of oven called a "convection oven" for heat setting Genesis paints, because it heats more uniformly and without "hot spots". At Bountiful Baby, we use a convection oven that we bought at WalMart for $200. If you use some other type of oven, it could result in overheated "hot spots" in/on your vinyl parts, with the associated fuming risks of overheated vinyl. This applies to toaster ovens, roaster ovens, or any other electric or gas oven. We recommend that you do not use them-- that you use a dedicated convection oven instead.
  • Put your convection oven in a well-ventilated place. If you "overbake" vinyl, it will emit fumes, as any overheated vinyl will do. So be careful not to set the temperature too high, or to let it bake too long. And take suitable ventilation precautions. Even if it doesn’t burn, hot vinyl fumes have the potential to be toxic.
  • We recommend that you use "test parts" to initially set your oven temperature and baking time. Test parts are available from Bountiful Baby at a very nominal cost.
  • Remember, you only want to heat the vinyl sufficiently to cure the Genesis paint, and nothing more! It is your responsibility to reach that point, and not exceed it.

TUTORIAL - GENESIS HEAT SET PAINT -COLOR #6 - BROW BROWN

Genesis Instructions
Color #6: Brow Brown



Color #6 (Brow Brown). Thin this color and apply to the brow line using your 20/0 script liner brush. Start with a very, very thin paint and move to sightly thicker paint layers as you go, to give dimension. Note: Even the thicker paint will still be very thin.

We also have COLOR #6B: BROWN BLONDE.  You can use that color instead of Brow Brown if you want blonde brows. 


ORIGINAL TUTORIAL CAN BE FOUND HERE

TUTORIAL - GENESIS HEAT SET PAINT -COLOR #5 - EYELID PURPLE

Genesis Instructions
Color #5: Eyelid Purple 


 Color #5 (Eyelid Purple) Thin this color and apply to the eyelids with a tiny 20/0 script liner brush. Using a free hand and a very lightly loaded brush, paint in tiny capillaries on the eye lids.


ORIGINAL TUTORIAL CAN BE FOUND HERE

TUTORIAL - GENESIS HEAT SET PAINT -COLOR #4 - NAIL/ LIP/ BLUSH

Genesis Instructions
Color #4: Nail/Lip/Blush


 Color #4 (Nail, Blush, Lip) Use this color for blushing areas such as the cheeks, nose, hands, feet, knees, elbows etc. This color is also great for stork bites. Thin to a watercolor consistency and add this color using your very lightly loaded Maxine's Mop brush. Remove excess paint onto a paper towel or cosmetic round before you begin.







ORIGINAL TUTORIAL CAN BE FOUND HERE

ARTICLE - WOAMN PREFERS HER FAKE BABIES TO HER HUSBAND

I prefer my fake babies to sex with my husband

 

Tuesday 07 February 2012
Every night, Alice Winstone sleeps with 48 life-like baby dolls in her bedroom. Unsurprisingly, her long- suffering husband Chris, 56, doesn’t join her in their marital bed – and has even moved out because of her bizarre obsession.
But Alice – who spends £50 a month on clothes for the dolls and regularly changes their nappies – doesn’t care.  Incredibly, the mum-of-five claims she loves her dolls more than her husband of 11 years.
She says: “Chris has hated the dolls from the beginning and refused to sleep in the same room as them – he’s scared! He’s moved out, but I won’t consider getting rid of them, I love them – I only love him to a point. They come ahead of him on my list of priorities and I prefer having them to having sex with Chris!”
Alice, who has spent at least £11,500 buying the dolls, insists pushing her marriage to the brink is worth the sacrifice for the happiness they bring her.
“I never call them dolls – that’s offensive – to me, they’re babies,” she insists, explaining she likes them propped up facing her in their beds at night so she can see them.
“People might think I’m crackers, but I’m not bothered. I’ve always adored babies – their neediness, how they feel and how they look in my arms. These babies look and feel so close to the real thing.”
Alice has developed her obsession despite having five children of her own – Jade, 21, Ben, 20, Kyle, 17, Charlie, 14, and Jessica, 11.
“Of course, I love my kids more – I know these babies aren’t real. I’m not mental,” she says.
Alice, from Cardigan in Wales, had her children before meeting caravan site manager Chris 11 years ago. She wanted more, but was unable to because of a blood disorder.
But then she discovered Reborns – dolls designed to replicate newborn babies, with painted faces, hair and soft bodies. In 2008, she bought her first one, Taylor, for £150 and, from the outset, Chris wasn’t keen.
“Chris said Taylor was ugly,” she recalls. “He made me put him in the car, but I snuck him out and slept in the lounge with him! I loved him. I bought him a cuddly teddy, Moses basket and baby clothes.”
Initially, Taylor slept in the dining room and Chris put up  with him – but, within three weeks, besotted Alice had bought another, Toby, for £85.
She went on to buy 13 more “babies” in quick succession, saying she “couldn’t stop.” She then decided to move them into the bedroom – despite Chris’ protests.
“I liked having them close to me,” she says. “I have a special unit to put their baskets on – I’d never put them on the floor – and some sleep in a cot. But Chris was really freaked out by them and my attachment to them. That night, he slept in the car.
“I thought it was funny that he was frightened! After that, he went to stay with his mum – I tried to coax him back, but he said there wasn’t enough room. I didn’t even consider moving the babies, though – I wanted them with me.”
She adds: “My kids come first, then my two cats, then my babies, then Chris. Unlike Chris, I know my babies will always be here for me.”
The couple now see each other just three times a week.
Alice says: “I miss Chris and would like him to come back – but I don’t know if he would and I’m not getting rid of my babies.”
Worryingly, the fact her teenage sons also hate the dolls doesn’t deter her either.
She says defiantly: “My 14 year old threatens to stab them all – he’s embarrassed to bring his mates home. But he knows there’s no point asking me to get rid of them.”
Although the dolls have put an end to her love life with Chris, Alice keeps buying them – and now houses 48 in her bedroom.
Staggeringly, she still depends on Chris to buy them – she doesn’t work because she cares for her disabled son – though friends and family sometimes give them to her as gifts.
Even Alice is confused as to why Chris continues to give her money when she spends them on the dolls, but she says: “If I’m down or stressed, he’ll give me money to cheer me up.
“The most expensive baby was Carrie-Anne – she cost £1,000. She looks a bit like me when I was a baby – she’s a chunky monkey! I bought her a £35 dress from Mothercare, with a furry jacket and silver shoes.
“My favourites are Walter, who has a cheeky smile, and Jamie, who was bald and pale when he arrived – I repaired him.”
She adds: “Most of my babies wear shoes and never share clothes. I only buy new – never secondhand. I change their outfits and nappies once a week and wash and iron them. I spend about £50 a month on clothes, toys and dummies.”
Alice draws the line at feeding her dolls or taking them out, but insists each Reborn has its own personality.
She adds: “Chris tells me to stop buying the dolls, but I’ve bought five already this year. I love them – each and every one – and I don’t know when I’ll stop. I’m waiting for a new one to arrive now – I’m so excited, she’s got a mechanism that will allow her to breathe like a real baby!”
Chris, who now lives in a flat on the caravan site where he works, says: “I’m not willing to come home and live with my wife because I find her Reborns scary.”
By Emily Retter

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

BAKING A BABY

so, after you paint veins, you can bake your kit.

i took pics of my kit in my halogen heat cooker. because the heads a bit big i have to cook this kit in stages. limbs then head.



that film on the cooker part isnt condensation, thats some emition of checmical either from the paints but i suspect more from the vinyl itself.

its recommended that if you cook your vinyl in anything (and many people cook in the same oven they make food in) its advisable to not taint the environment you cook your food in.
im glad i got this cooker, because i can plainly see, after one use...the film thats built up on the cooker. imagine if thats on your oven and seeps into your food. food for thought.

MICHELLE

ARTICLE - VINYL CHILDREN

Vinyl children


Kovacic Yelena
Feb 1, 2012 15:21 Moscow Time
Dolls resembling babies in appearance are acquiring more and more popularity in Russia. And among women much more than among girls. Psychologists are trying to understand whether this can be regarded as cognizance of the time or as a mental disorder.
“What a cute baby! And what a beautiful suit set I’ve bought for him”! The owners of reborn dolls (this is how such dolls are called) treat them as if they were real children: they dandle them and also buy them toys, clothes, beds, and prams. At forums they discuss their “babies” and share their plans for buying new ones. 
Reborn dolls appeared abroad 20 years ago but for Russia they are a novelty. Such dolls are expensive, and to make them is a hard job. “It takes not less than 3 weeks to make one”, an artist, Irina Tsorn, says.
"This is a realistic handmade doll. Such a doll is not for playing with it – it would be just in place in your collection. All this is unique work. Such dolls do not resemble one another."
Such a “baby” – a reborn doll - could be taken for a real baby. There was a case in the USA, when a policeman broke the window of a car that was parked nearby, thinking that what was inside was a real baby who was left there by negligent parents. And once a female swindler posted a photo of her reborn doll on the global network in an effort to urge visitors to make donations, so that her, allegedly, ill child would be able to recover. Reborn dolls can really stir up sympathies, one of the owners of reborn dolls, Lyudmila, says.
"First of all, we are women, and if I see a doll – a reborn doll or simply a beautiful German doll of a 3- or 5-year-old child – they always trigger tender emotions."
Lyudmila is absolutely sure that buying reborn dolls does not differ from any other form of collecting - be that stamps, Bohemian glass or pictures. And this has nothing to do with maternal instinct. No dolls can replace a real child, she told a Voice of Russia reporter.
And still, there’re people who buy reborn dolls in order to recollect their youth: their children and grandchildren have grown up, and reborn dolls become an object to admire, and besides, they can crochet caps and other clothes for them. Psychologist Ilya Shabshin calls this immaturity.
"If a woman has children but wants to continue playing with her dolls this means that she didn’t have enough of that in her childhood."
The Russian psychologist says that there may be one more reason for that. The point is that a real child demands much attention. Not all women are ready for that but they want to feel what it means to be a mother.  
"In any game reality is becoming more simplified. And besides, to be successful in a game is easier than in real life. That is why instead of making efforts to resolve existing problems women want to return to their childhood."