Di's hand-crafted 'reborn babies' filling a sales niche

• Kate Matthews
• 7th Mar 2013 2:00 PM

http://www.dailyexaminer.com.au/news/dolls-crafted-with-love/1782125/

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Di McGavigan with one of her realistic reborn dolls. Photo: Adam Hourigan

THEY may look exactly like real- life babies, but don't be fooled, these beautiful dolls have been crafted by the loving hands of South Grafton's Di McGavigan.
Known as reborns, each one takes about 50 hours to create - thankfully far less than the 6500 hours it takes to make a real one.
Ms McGavigan said the moment she first laid eyes on one seven years ago she was captivated.
"My sister turned up on my doorstep with a baby in a shawl - I asked her who's baby have you got?" said Ms McGavigan
"I saw this little thing and thought, oh my God this is beautiful - just like a real baby."
Occasionally Ms McGavigan enjoys taking one or two of her "babies" with her while she runs errands and says sometimes when people see them and realise they are dolls, they get startled, but everyone is curious.
"I know some people say it's freaky but I think they are beautiful," she said.
After spending months researching and talking to other doll makers through online forums, Di purchased a kit and began making her own.
Finally she decided to enter a competition and began sculpting them from clay and recently created three original babies of her own, from which she makes her own kits.
Although Di kept the first one, she prefers to sell them, with many of her babies having found new homes all around the world.
"I've got to a point now I'm established, I can make them and sell them as a source of income when I retire," she said.
"I know it can be very expensive for some people; they are an heirloom doll, but for many, once they have one they want another one.
"I know some people have a massive collection."
Like the lady in Western Australian who ordered a sleeping baby and returned soon after for a toddler, and another lady in Perth who now has 40 of Di's dolls in her collection.
A handful of babies have also found homes locally, with the South Grafton Newsagent now displaying a selection.
Di also sells them from her home, Cottage Lane, where she works part-time as a hairdresser.
She estimates she has made about 300 dolls over the years, mostly in her spare time.
Each one is individually crafted with incredible attention to detail.
"I like to imagine them opening the box," she said. "I try to make it a special experience."
She said sometimes the cost and time it took to make her reborns could leave her out of pocket, but she loved the art and couldn't imagine giving it up.
"It's an expensive hobby, but a very rewarding one," she said.
Fast facts

•  Each doll is carefully hand painted with real-life skin tones, blemishes, veins, even little scratches.
•  Each hair is micro rooted, one at a time, using mohair
•  Each reborn doll has its own tiny fingernails and toenails.
•  The dolls are then assembled and weighted, including a floppy head, fully poseable limbs, and a soft cuddly body.
•  Finally they are dressed and swaddled in a bunny rug, before being lovingly wrapped in tissue paper, packaged and shipped ready to meet their new owners, complete with a birth certificate and dummy.

ARTICLE - LIFELIKE BABIES THAT ARE JUST FOR CUDDLING

December 4, 2012 

Lifelike babies that are just for cuddling

 

They don’t cry and don’t need changing or feeding but Suzanne-Lewis dolls are proving popular with ladies who want to cuddle a baby. CATHY SPENCER reports

As 12-year-old Ellie Morris cuddles the bundle in her arms she can’t help but smile, like any other new mother.
However, luckily the Willenhall school girl won’t have to miss any classes to look after her new baby, as the infant is actually made of vinyl.
Ellie is just one of the thousands of customers who are snapping up the lifelike Reborn dolls from the Suzanne-Lewis shop in Cannock.
The business was started six years ago by Suzanne Wood, who had launched a baby shop in Brownhills.
It was in September when she moved to her new site in Walsall Road, Cannock, and her shop is filled with dozens of the dolls as well as specially made accessories.
“Over the years I have seen how the Reborn babies have helped make a lot of people happy,” she says.
“But when we are seen out in the street with our dolls we can get a lot of abuse as people don’t understand – why is it fine for a man to collect matchbox cars, but not for us to have dolls?”
Suzanne says women who buy the dolls don’t tend to push them in prams but get enjoyment from cuddling them.
“One customer was diagnosed with cancer and she just wanted something to cuddle, to give her some comfort,” says Suzanne.

“There are women who have a reborn after they have lost babies – they don’t get the doll to replace the baby but to help with the grief.
“When a woman holds a baby it releases oxytocin in the brain which makes people happy and relaxed. Ask anyone who holds a baby how they feel and they forget their worries and it makes them feel good.”
Suzanne says she has always loved dolls.
“I was the youngest of four and my eldest sister Margaret used to buy dolls for me,” she says.
“When I was 11 I moved on to porcelain dolls and Ashton Drake collectable dolls. It wasn’t long before I came across the Reborn dolls.”
Suzanne opened a baby shop in Brownhills in 2005 after her father, Lewis, and mother Joyce passed away, leaving her some money.
“The first thing I did was open a baby shop – I had cribs and prams in the shop and used the Reborn dolls as models in them for demonstration purposes,” says Suzanne, 46.
“It wasn’t long before people started asking me about the dolls.”
Suzanne, who grew up in Aldridge, says Reborn dolls are well-known.
“People have them for lots of reasons – the dolls helped me get over losing my mum,” she says.
“One lady bought one for her daughter’s 21st birthday and it will be kept as a family heirloom.
“We had one 14-year-old girl brought into the shop by her father as she was desperate for a baby.”
Suzanne who has two sons – Nathan, 19, and Daniel, 17 says people often think there is something wrong with a woman who likes dolls.
“Earlier this year I went on the TV show Daybreak and they sat me on the couch next to a psychiatrist – luckily the psychiatrist said it was natural to want to hold a baby,” she says.

“It is amazing to see how people with dementia and Alzheimer’s are helped by holding the dolls – with dementia people can revert back to their childhood, so having a doll helps them cope with that.
“Once a month we have a dolly club where customers can bring along their Reborns, have a coffee and talk openly about their interest without being judged.”
The dolls, which range from £120 to £500, take hours to create and each one is unique. A kit is made by sculpting a baby’s arms, legs and head out of clay and then it is used as a mould to make the doll out of vinyl. The kits are fitted together and eye colour, skin colour and hairis chosen.
The painting takes several hours as it can take 80 coats of paint, and each one has to be heat set in an oven.
It takes us around two weeks to make each baby and every one of them is unique.
Suzanne holds painting classes where she will teach people how to create their perfect baby.
“There are women who bring in photos of their children when they were babies and they want them reconstructed,” she says.
“The dolls are made to feel like they weigh around 8lb and the neck is floppy and needs supporting, just like with a baby.
“Christmas is a very busy time for us and at the moment we are selling around three babies a day.
“However, the time it takes to make one means we don’t make much money out of each doll – I do it because I have a passion for it, not because I want to get rich.”
Young Ellie Morris says she has been after a Reborn for two years and saved up her money to afford one, which she has named Charlie.
“I like that they look and feel real, it is nice to buy different clothes for Charlie for the day and night, and it is great to cuddle him in the evening while I’m watching TV,” says Ellie.
“My friends think it is really nice and I researched it a lot on the internet, looking at different pictures until I found one I liked.
 “It isn’t just me who benefits from having Charlie as my nan is keen to start knitting for a baby again, and now she can knit as much as she wants.”

ARTICLE - 'I FEEL SUCH A CLOSE BOND TO THEM' - MOTHER OF 5 AMASSES 12,000 POUND COLLECTION OF 50 FAKE BABIES !!

'I feel such a close bond to them': Mother-of-five amasses £12,000 collection of FIFTY fake babies because she can't have any more children

• Alice Winstone has spent £12,000 in seven years buying enormous brood of fake children
• She cannot have more children because of blood disorder which would make pregnancy unsafe
• Lifelike dolls fill several rooms of her maisonette in Cardigan, Mid Wales - which she still shares with three of her five children
• Most expensive doll cost her £1,200
• Her obsession saw her husband move out because he 'couldn't cope' with number of dolls

By Chris Parsons
PUBLISHED: 05:33 EST, 24 August 2012

When mother-of-five Alice Winstone was told she could not have more children for health reasons, she remained determined to fill her home with babies.
And the maternal 39-year-old is so desperate to care for infants she has spent thousands buying 50 lifelike baby dolls which take up her entire house.
Mrs Winstone has spent seven years and over £12,000 filling her home with the scarily lifelike vinyl 'Reborn Dolls', even though three of her five real children still share the same house.

Maternal instincts: Alice Winstone cares for one of the 50 fake babies which fill her home in Cardigan, Mid Wales

Mother duties: Mrs Winstone, who is separated from her husband due to her obsession, changes the clothes of one of her 'children'

Her obsession with the fake babies, which cost up to £1,200 each, sees her spend £50 a month and has forced her long-suffering husband Chris to move out of their maisonette home in Cardigan, Mid Wales.
Mrs Winstone had bought her first fake baby, a £180 doll called Emily, after seeing her on the back of a magazine and 'falling head over heels in love with her'.

She went on to buy 13 more in quick succession, and admitted that soon after she 'couldn't stop.'
She said that despite the misgivings of husband Chris, she was 'astonished to feel such a close bond to a doll'.
Mrs Winstone had been told after her becoming pregnant with youngest daughter Jessica, now 12, that she had a blood disorder which would make another pregnancy unsafe.

Lifelike: The 'Reborn Doll's are made from a vinyl material and can cost up to £1,200 each

Care and attention: Mrs Winstone shows the rack of outfits she has bought for her fake children

Changing time: Mrs Winstone bought her first doll around seven years ago after 'falling head over heels in love with her'

Her medical issue also means she does not work, instead caring 24 hours a day for the 50 fake children she has collected since.
She changes, washes, sleeps with and 'feeds' her enormous brood of vinyl children - and even takes her favourites out for day trips in the car.

She readily admits she preferred caring for her dolls to having sex with her husband, who moved out of their home five years ago due to her growing army of pretend children.
Mrs Winstone said: 'I tried taking in kittens, and even fostering children but I couldn't bear the part where I had to say goodbye.
'I began looking after the dolls like I would my own babies - they are so life-like and I feel such a close bond to them.
'It's the best of both worlds as well - I get to dress them up, do their hair and wash their clothes without the endless dirty nappies and sleepless nights!'
Mrs Winstone became very protective over her dolls and worried about her children being near them, or the cat sitting on them if she wasn't around to keep an eye on them.

She moved the dolls to her bedroom, and bought cots for them to sleep in.
Eventually Chris moved out as he couldn't cope with her love for the dolls any longer.
She said: 'Chris didn't understand why I treated my dolls like real babies - he just didn't get it.
'I tried telling him how happy they make me but he just thought it was a stupid obsession.
'They soon started to affect our sex life as I would want some of them to come to bed with us, but Chris refused.
'We were arguing about other things in our relationship, but the dolls really didn't help - he said they freaked him out because they looked so real.'
'I wouldn't have given up my dolls for Chris - we come as a package. I like them close to me, and I'm never far away from them for long.
'After Chris left, I down-sized my double bed to a single and turned our room into a nursery. I didn't need the extra space and it meant there was more room for my dolls and their stuff.'
Mrs Winstone insisted that, while she 'does love her children more', she would still not give up her dolls for anything.

Attached: The mother-of-five says she now spends all her time with her 50 fake babies, as they 'come as a package'

Realistic: Mrs Winstone's most expensive Reborn Doll, a 'boy' called Rhys, cost her £1,200

Mrs Winstone regularly takes her pretend brood out for day trips near her home in Cardigan, Mid Wales

Her estranged husband Chris still visits their house to visit the couple's real children - Jade, 22, Ben, 21, Kyle, 17, Charlie, 15, and Jessica, 12 - as their youngest three still live under the same roof as the 50 fake babies.

She added: 'Of course, I love my kids more – I know these babies aren’t real. I’m not mental.'
Despite claiming this, the mother of five has admitted to dressing her favourite doll Rhys (who cost £1,200) up in Ugg boots and taking him on day trips to the zoo.
Mrs Winstone said: 'I've spent thousands on my dolls - but I also go to doll fairs and swap them for others when I've had them a while.
'Rhys is my favourite, I like him to sleep with me every night.
'I recently took him to Chester Zoo - loads of people came up to me and told me how cute he is, and they couldn't believe it when I told them he was a reborn doll and not a baby.
'I buy him Next clothes and UGG boots as I want him to look nice.'
Mrs Wintstone's reborns are so realistic, she was once stopped by police when she had four of them on the back seat.
She said: 'The police officer told me I needed to get car seats for my children as it was dangerous for them to travel without them.
'When I told him they were dolls, he wouldn't believe me - I think he thought I was crazy!
'Once he had seen the dolls close up he realised they weren't real babies, but it shows how much they look like real children - that's why I love them.
'No relationship will ever come between me and my babies, and I wouldn't give them up for my children. It's me and the babies - they're everywhere.'

 Obsession: The Reborn Dolls now take up several rooms in Mrs Winstone's home, which she still shares with three of her children

Expensive: As well as spending thousands on the dolls themselves, Mrs Winstone also buys prams, cots, and dozens of outfits

ARTICLE - WHAT A DOLL : WEST MICHIGAN ARTIST SELLS POPULAR REBORN BABIES

What a Doll: West Michigan Artist Sells Popular Reborn Babies

Blanca Nemecek from Coopersville brings dolls to life with realistic details, selling the lifelike babies on eBay to collectors across the globe

 

 

Lindsay Kus Anchor/Reporter

April 11, 2012

COOPERSVILLE—

She looks like a bundle in pink. A baby girl with wispy brown hair, wearing a bonnet and pastel dress. A real doll you might say. Actually, that's what she is. A doll.

She's called a reborn and a creation of artist Blanca Nemecek from Coopersville.

"I pride myself in getting as much of the detail as absolutely possible," said Nemecek, who does most of her work in her kitchen.

"At first my husband thought it was a bit weird, there are doll parts all over the place."

The 50-year old grandmother started making the lifelike dolls four years ago after she stumbled upon them on the internet.

"I was looking on eBay for a gift, possibly a doll of some nature, and I came across this.  I was like, oh my gosh! I need to know about this. I love babies and love the art of it," she said.

She learned her craft and became certified as a reborn artist through the Reborn Artists of Distinction website where artists can send in their work to get the reborn stamp of approval. Nemecek is now considered advanced status. The idea of reborn is a doll "reborn" to look like a real baby.

"There's something about a baby that people just love," said Nemecek.

The process to create it is a tedious one. A sculpture makes the mold which is then manufactured into a vinyl kit sold to artists as a blank slate. It's their job to take that base and bring it to life with delicate paints and hair. A time consuming process. Nemecek spends hours on every detail down to the skin tone and fingernails.

"It can take several weeks to make one doll from start to finish," she said.

Like other reborn artists, she sells her work on eBay. She lists her dolls and takes custom orders from around the world. Most are international, but some of her regular clients are from the United States. Typically women,  who are collectors or buying the dolls as a gift. 

Cindy from Illinois just purchased her second doll from Nemecek.

"I can't thank you enough for making this little girl for me," she writes in an e-mail.

Another customer, a family from New York, recently bought a $650 custom toddler boy from Nemecek. Their teenage daughter posted the baby's arrival on YouTube.

"Oh my gosh he is so cute," the girl screams as she tears open a cardboard box with a what appears to be a small child inside.

The reborn baby boom has exploded in the last year, making national headlines.

 It has been described as cute, creepy, comforting, therapeutic, controversial, offensive, creative, and just about everything else.

Most of the buzz stems from collectors who treat their dolls like a real baby. Women who take the fake babies shopping or on trips as if they were a child.

The bizarre hobby can catch onlookers off-guard.

"What people will do with them I think that bothers some people as far as taking them to the store and treating them like a real child is they are not a real child,  they aren't a real baby. They are a collector's doll and that's all they are intended to be," said Nemecek.

For her and other reborn artists,  it's about the creativity and the more lifelike, the better.

"So if it looks creepy real,  then they can call them creepy real all they want," she said.