Reborn, Sweet – dolls by Shaylen

Okay.  So, I’ve been reborning, officially, for 8 days. 8 and yet it feels like so much longer. Probably because I spent so long intensely studying in preparation for it. When my kits arrived on Friday, I dropped everything to hit up the craft store to get the last items that hadn’t yet arrived. Because, see, kits came before some of my much needed mop brushes. I had baked three layers of flesh & veining on before night’s end, and got up early Saturday morning to start detailing.

So I probably went too fast and furiously, because I feel a bit burnt out by it all already. BUT when I get obsessive about something. I get really obsessive. As I type this, I’m painting hair on my second kit, and it’s ALL I can think about, how to correct/hone my skills in the painted hair domain.  I went rooting for the first one. This time, painted. But I’m getting grossly ahead of myself.  Backing up, three of the five (okay, I’ve confessed it now, just how deep I went into this new initiative! Who starts with 5?!) kits arrived Friday. I made my selection. Meg, Cozy, and Sam, if you were curious – I chose Sam to start with.

And bam, by Monday I was rooting.  After the first few steps, it really did become much more of an intuition based art form than I thought it would be. 1) I don’t like pre mixed paint. 2) I’ve never been one for following things by the book. But really, it was a lot of just sensing when to stop. When to add a bit more. Using blues where I might’ve otherwise used reds. And I discovered something, I really really love creases. But more than that, I like adding to the face what isn’t already there.  In “Sam’s” case, I went with a subtle vein between his eyes, much like my sweet Meekly’s.  I used my kiddos’ faces & complexion as a guide.

And what I ended up with, as I started into the rooting, was a baby that looked eerily just like my nephew.  It was completely unintended, of course. And nephew does look a lot like my son. But golly, it was shocking for me!

“Sam” mid-root.And rooting. . . yeah, there’s something that’s even less fun than I imagined it would be. Okay, I was completely freaked out by the thought of rooting to start with. I first pictured hand sewing and tying in each strand (when I didn’t realize it was much more just stabbing a needle in there – methodically, of course, but there is no tying). So when I realized it wasn’t QUITE as involved as I thought, I figured I might be able to do it. (Because if it was a tying sewing in thingy, I was going to give up and go bald reborning only! Cuz I suck at sewing ANYTHING!) And yes, it is easier than I thought it would be. But much more exhausting physically. Goodness how my neck hurt. It hurts just thinking about the three days of rooting I put in. And I know that I actually spent farrrrrr too much time rooting per day than I should have. So it should have taken soooo much longer.  Which is probably why it was such a pain in the neck! LOL! But yes, feet hurting, neck hurting, and I inevitably suffered my first work related injury. I stabbed straight through my fingertip. Like I pierced it. Like you could have put a hoop earring through it. I thought I stabbed right into the bone, so I was relieved to find it just went in one side and out the other. BUT OMFG DID I YELP! I have new found respect for the felting needle.  And I started with 36 gauge ones and I def want to move to something smaller. Something that hooks less hair per stick because plucking out extra hairs in each follicle is not my idea of being productive rooting.

And well, early May 8th, at 12:11AM, in fact, my first reborn was born! I had his photoshoot the following day, and he’s now up for adoption on ebay. A full flickr album is here: & a behind the scenes in more detail is on the FB page.

My little Meekly, loving on baby “Sam”.

Before, After:

And speaking of FB page, after #1 was complete, I ran a “Name the Reborn Game” on the page (so fun!) to help me name him for his listing. The winning moniker was, of course, Carson Elijah.

He so looks like a Carson, doesn’t he?

I loved the name game so much, we’ll be naming “Meg” when her hair is done too.

Here’s a peek at her currently. : )

My other two kits (which arrived earlier this week) are Kameko and Aubrey. I’ve stepped away from shut eyes and into opened eyes. And have a list of about 10 others on my must-do list for the near future. Now if only my schedule could allow me to keep up with all this ambition. LOL!