Designed primarily as toys for mothers-to-be and kids clothes mannequins, reborn dolls are rapidly gaining popularity among collectors and women who are unable to have their own kids.
Reborn dolls look just like real infants – except for their blank stare and no breathing. Depending on the quality and complicity of the doll its cost ranges from few hundreds to few thousand dollars.
First reborns were made of ordinary toy dolls but soon specially designed sets for producing reborn dolls were developed. This set called “mold” consists of plastic head, arms and legs and a stuffed textile body.
An artist degreases the mold, slits holes for eyes and mouth and proceeds to the hardest part – the painting of a doll. Reborns are painted with acrylic and oil paints. First the artist creates the natural skin tone of an infant, and then he draws a unique ornament of veins, capillaries, spots and so on.
After that the artist fabricates the texture of the skin with a special varnish. Finally, he carefully implants finest mohair into the doll's head and mounts two glass eyes.
Many psychologists warn against the usage of such dolls because the woman’s affection towards them may become obsessive and even lead to inability to care for one’s own children. There are numerous examples of women treating their reborn dolls as if they were alive and refusing to have real kids.
Presently it is possible to make reborn dolls of any size and shape from the newborn to the first grader – even the unusual dolls like baby gorilla or a troll.
