Cutest Ugly Baby Ever

All reborning sculpts are not created equal, and not all babies are cute. This is a sad fact of life, albeit one that most people avoid talking about. Since my goal as a reborner is to create truly life-like art dolls, nature neccessitates that not all reborns should be cute.

That said, I'm finally finished with Brandon Kyle. This is not an overwhelmingly popular sculpt, but I must admit that I kind of like him. There is something charming about his little face that I just can't put my finger on, something that sets him apart from the peaches and cream cutesy doey eyed girl reborns out there. His bug eyes are decidedly charming, and those little arms just melt my heart.

My First Ethnic Reborn

My first darker skinned baby is almost finished! I spent this afternoon painting some hair, as I want her to have a lot of vellus hair on her forehead. My picture details aren't great as it's after 10:00 here, but they kind of show the skin tone I was able to achieve. This is a Dana kit by Romie Strydom, so she started out caucasian.

I can't wait to see how she'll turn out. Now I'm just waiting for mohair to arrive from Mohair by Debbie, and I'll be ready to root!

Achieving the Swirl

I finally did it! After a year of waging the rooting war with each and every doll, I have finally managed to create a decent swirl pattern. There is definitely a secret to it, and I'm definitely willing to share. Look for a tutorial in the near future!

The challenges of diversity

I've finally decided to branch out into the realm of ethnically diverse reborning. Yikes! The challenges of turning a light peach vinyl into the creamy mocha of a Brooke Nicole baby is daunting at best and terrifying at worst.

The reborning world is, for the most part, decidedly caucasian. I'm not sure why, but I find it a little sad. Why in the world is vinyl not available in every color? Granted, some sculpts just don't lend themselves to every ethnicity, but many of them do.

I'll provide a link to Brooke Nicole's web site for those interested in viewing what a real artist can do with light colored vinyl and a real creative eye.

http://www.brooke-nicole.com/