Reborn, Sweet – dolls by Shaylen

** This is a monthly blog feature, for reborn artists by a reborn artist! This is not a sponsored post by the sculpter or distributor, just a featurette I personally would love to read about the ins & outs of specific sculpts in the market currently. I will try to cover all the important points, my fave parts of the sculpt, proper eye size for open eyed sculpts (because sometimes distributors have different eye sizes listed), body type, limb type, vinyl colour & whether neutralizing washes will be required per skin tone, & baby clothing size! Think I missed something? Feel free to comment with additional info you’d have liked to see about the sculpt & I’ll try to include them in my next feature & answer the current questions in the comments section below.

Now introducing ‘Sarah’ by Antonio Sanchis

Macpherson’s Arts & Crafts just released Antonio Sanchis’ debut sculpt under his name. Antonio Sanchis is a Spanish doll sculptor and painter, who has spent 40 years creating dolls  for the Spanish toy industry and has worked for well known companies like Famosa, Corolle, Zaf, Berenguer to name a few. Sarah is 20″ long with a head circumference of 14.5cm. She has full arms and full legs. She includes a jointed doe suede body.

Edition Size: Unlimited

Status: Available now exclusively through Macpherson’s Arts & Crafts

First off, I absolutely loved working on Sarah. I was unbelievably thrilled to have been offered the chance to reborn her as a prototype. She was my first official prototype and a tremendous honour as an artist to be considered! Thank you so much again, Brenda & the rest of the Macphersons team.

Sarah’s sculpting was incredible. It’s rare to find a sculpt that is super adorable AND has full length limbs too! As mentioned in my last sculpt post, full length limbs are my personal fave. Sarah is also a beautiful sized baby, 20-21 inches long, and just slightly bigger than a newborn (which means she fits both newborn and 0-3 month clothing perfectly!

Her vinyl was a little more orange than I prefer, so I did do a neutralizing layer on her using a pale blue/green. I mixed Genesis Phthalo Green 06, Titanium White, and Ultramarine Blue. I’m sure a mint wash would do the same thing, but I like mixing my own. Haha. I also did one of my flesh layers with my usual flesh 8 mixed with titanium white to make her a tinsy bit paler, as I do like my Caucasian babies base tone a little on the paler side. But otherwise, I adored her vinyl.

Her vinyl was very reminiscent of Elisa Marx in that it took colour beautifully. Very little paint/thinner was required to get a great depth of colour. So if you have a tendency, as I do, to overpaint babies, be mindful if you reborn her as her paint will set really well. Some vinyls require more paint to achieve the same effect, but not Sarah. 😉

She is also delightfully chubby. Lots of realistic rolls on her arms & legs! And her feet!

So realistic. Love her curled toes. As I said to Brenda, when I was reborning her, she’s a steal. For her cost, $79 CAD (including her body), you can’t find sculpts as detailed as Sarah for her cost. Esp not full length limbed babies too. And when you do, usually, the faces or limbs aren’t realistic. Or something in their proportions is off. (hands, feet, or head, etc). She is proportionate everywhere. And adorable as hell. I will def be reborning this one A LOT in the months (& hopefully years) to come.

Check out those fingers! ^ ^ ^

Which brings me to my next point: Gender! I do think Sarah leans a bit more girly, but she’d be a really adorable baby boy too, I’m certain of it. Since this was a prototype, and Macs gave me lots of flexibility for her customizations, I used my artistic judgement on her and made her a beautiful full combi baby girl. I painted her hair and fully rooted her (over top her painted hair). Which brings me to rooting her. I didn’t break a single needle rooting her (& her head is on the larger side – 14.5″). Her vinyl was super soft everywhere. No heating her head prior, or anything. It also wasn’t so soft I had to stuff with polyfil before rooting either. Awesomeness! 😀

Some of my additional fave features of Sarah Sanchis:

– Her incredible mouth! I’m probably not alone in saying I love lips! She has the most gorgeous, full lips that were so much fun to paint.

-I also loved her ears. They have a realistic fold in the top, that my Meekly also had when she was born. Such a cute, realistic little addition to the sculpt that makes her really unique.

All told, she is the perfect big newborn size (or 1 mos old baby). She fits almost every newborn brand (mins some of Carter’s super small newborn stuff) & all 0-3 mos clothes (which is awesome for dressing her). And I found some really cute 3-6 mos shirts and dresses that looked great on her (included some in her layette).  Also, her chubby legs are great for wearing tights too! Even 0-12 mos sized tights (if you shop at places that only have 0-12 mos size – damn you, Joe Fresh! HAHA).

She’s a great value for money, and esp awesome if you’re a Canadian reborner and like me virtually live in Macpherson’s Arts & Crafts. I am sooooo looking forward to the work Sanchis does in future. Cannot wait to see his next sculpt. And thank you so much again, Macs. Baby Sarah has become one of my fan & personal fave babies! ❤

Have a question about Sarah still? Let me know in the comments! Or if you’ve reborn him (or are a collector and have him on your wishlist or in your collection already) let me know what you love most about him!!