What IS a Reborn Doll?

UPDATE: You can vote for Lucas's middle name in the poll off to the right side of the blog!
Hey guys, it's Ashleigh.
     I decided to make a quick post explaining what a reborn doll is! A reborn doll is an extremely lifelike doll that is painted and assembled to resemble a real baby.  A reborn doll starts off as a blank vinyl kit. This kit is then painted in many thin layers to create a realistic skin tone. Each layer of paint is set into the vinyl by baking it. The kit below is mine; it is the Twin B kit by Bonnie Brown. He isn't painted yet, I'm going to send him off to an artist in a few months when I've saved up enough money.  I've assembled it because I wanted to see how big he would be when he's finished:)

He's so detailed. And tiny. He's like 17 inches!

Squeeeee!!

     By the way, I'm naming this reborn Lucas. If you have any middle name suggestions for him, please leave them in the comments! I'm drawing a blank;)

     Once the kit is painted, the doll's hair can be micro-rooted, painted, or there can be no hair at all. Micro-rooting can take days, but the results are well worth it. This picture is of micro-rooted hair.

This is not my picture! All credit goes to the original photographer:)

     Once the doll has hair(or not!), it is assembled and weighted to be as heavy as a real baby. Usually, the doll is assembled to make the head slightly floppy, so that you would have to support its head like with a real baby. The reborn artist will then pack the doll and layette into a box and ship it to its new mommy/daddy. Reborn box packings are usually very fun to open, like a whole bunch of presents! Here's an example-

This is not my picture! All credit for this picture goes to the original photographer:)

Some Key Words
Artist- The person that creates the reborn doll (painting, rooting, assembling, etc.)
Kit- The unpainted vinyl pieces (head, arms, legs, head, and sometimes a tummy plate) that are                  painted by the artist

     Well, I hope that this post helped you understand just a little bit more about what reborns are! If you have any questions at all,ask me in the comments! I'd be happy to answer them!

Ashleigh

P.S.- I JUST got my new laptop, so now I have to find the camera cable and photograph the craft post. I should have it up soon!