About Our Babies
Our 'Babies' are one off artist creations, collectors dolls.
They are NOT children's play dolls, and are not suitable for children due to the hair, magnets and fillings. They are Not toys
There will never be two babies produced that will be exactly the same, even if the same kit is used twice, the resulting babies will still be artistically one of a kind.
Preparation
At the start of the process, a baby will come in kit form.
There are numerous tallented sculptors out there who sculpt babies out of polymer clay called OOAKS (One Of A Kind Sculpts). The sculpts are given a name for reference/identication such as 'Lil Grumpy', 'Angelica', 'First Cry', 'Spencer' etc as no two sculpts will be exactly the same. Sometimes the sculptors will send their OOAK clay sculpt sent away and made into a vinyl kit form. A Vinyl kit still needs handling with care but is a lot less fragile than a clay OOAK baby.
The kit will take on the name of the sculpt that it was molded from.
A kit is just bare unpainted vinyl parts, usually consisting of a head, arms & legs and nothing else, no eyes, or body, no hair added, no fillings added etc. Sometimes a belly plate will be available to go with the kit but these are usually purchased seperately at further cost.
Here is an example of a bland kit before we work our magic on it turning it into a reborn baby.
Firstly the kit will be washed off thoroughly to remove any grime and grease left over from the factory where it was moulded.
We then clean the kit further with alcohol wipes, to remove any last traces of grease and to ensure the paint sticks to the vinyl properly.
Next step is to open up the nose on the kit to give the doll a more realistic look and depth. This has to be opened and neatened off.
Painting Process
We use Genesis paint which does not chip off or fade.
The vinyl the kit is made from varies greatly in colour from kit to kit. some kits are very ornage colour, others are beige-yellow, others are very pink. To achieve realstic skin colours we have to neutralise the vinyl colour by applying several thin washes of the correct paint colour to tone down the bare vinyl colour to a colour that is more natural looking. It can take as many as 6 thin washes of paint to neutralise it, and each wash layer is heat set in a special oven. Genesis paints are top quality paint giving lovely natural colours but they require heat setting so the doll kit parts has to be put in an oven to bake each layer of paint on permanently.
After neutralising we work on the skin tones, skin texture painting layers, blushing layers, lip colour, etc. We also paint areas to give a 'thin skin' appearance as babies have, as well as a hint of a rosy cheek, mottling to the skin, shading the skin creases, and we even add delicate veins, capilliaries, nails tipped in off white, and a moist lip look.
The painting process is quite lengthy for a cuacausian baby, and even longer for a mixed race or ethnic baby. Each layer again has to be heat set by putting the vinyl parts into the oven again and again.
Occasionally we will add a glaze to the lips that give a 'spit bubble' look, depending on the sculpt mouth shape. Milk spots, stalk bites, scratches etc can also be added to enhance a kit further and add even more realism.
No two reborn babies painted will ever look exactly the same even if the exact same shades of paint are used due to the fact we have to mix the combinations of colours of paint ourselves for each layer.
The very lengthy painting process is worth it though as a piece of vinyl gradually 'comes to life' in appearance.
Hair
Once a kit has been fully painted its time to root the hair. All of our babies are hand rooted, but pushing very fine soft mohair through the vinyl into the dolls scalp with a fine needle. Since November 2010 we have further improved our rooting technique and now each babies hair is true 'micro rooted' which is painstakingly applying just 1-2 hairs at a time!!! This process takes between 20-60 hours, sometimes more, as it is all hand done, but is worth it when the finished reborn baby has a gorgerous head of hair. We do not like to rush the rooting process and you will not see any 'plugs' of hair (clumps) where an reborn artist has rushed the process and rooted a big bundle of hair into each hole at a time to get the doll finished quicker, as often found on cheaper dolls avaiable!
The hair is then glued inside the head to seal it so that very little hair if any will fall out. We don't just glue the hair once like some artists, but triple seal it! Each layer of glue has to dry first.
Nose, Magnets & Eyes
Magnets for a magnetic dummy or magnetic hair bow will now be glued in place inside the head. We use very good quality strong neomidium magnets which are very effective, but care should be taken around people with pacemakers, electrical equipment and bank and credit cards etc. If you wish we can remove the magnets, or leave them off of a custom or portrait order baby. Please let us know if you require this.
The nostil holes we made earlier will be backed with dark felt to give a realistic look of depth to them.
We would at this point also fit the eyes. We use good quality eyes, we will not out of choice use cheap plastic eyes as seen on cheaper reborn dolls available elsewhere. The eyes we use a german glass eyes often made by a company called Lauchner/Lauchna. The eyes are individually mouth blown hand made eyes, so no two pairs will be exaclty the same, but will be similar. The eyes are works of art in themselves and are not mass produced by a machine. These eyes give a wonderful realistic look. After all the work that went into painting and rooting a baby it would be a shame to go any ruin it by putting in cheap plastic eyes!!!!
We hand root the eye lashes on closed eye 'sleeping' babies, and sometimes hand root the eye lashes on the open eye babies too.
Fillings and Body
We use a very good quality cloth body on our babies. They are disc jointed so that an arm or leg can be gently moved/positioned for posing. The bodies we use are made from the more expensive 'doe suede' fabric, rather than the cheaper cotton body type. The brushed suede effect fabric gives a warmer feel to touch and is more luxurious.
The body part of the doll is has a pouch of the more expensive 'baby fat' added to the tummy area. It is made from a special rubber cut into tiny chips which gives a lovely squishy feel. The rest of the body is stuffed with a 'heavy' fibre filling designed for dolls and teddy bears to give a firm but not hard feel rather than a lumpy old pillow feel.
The head has a pouch of either steel shot or smooth glass granules added to give a realistic floppy head weight to it. Our reborn babies heads will flop like a real babies head would do so they shoudl be carefully held like you would do with a real baby. It is them topped up with fibre filling, and the head opening is then sealed with glue and felt. The opening wont be seen once the limbs and head are attached to the body.
The arms and legs are filled with a combination of either steel shot, glass granules that flows like salt, and fibre filling,
or glass granules and fibre filling
again they are sealed with felt.
None of our babies are filled with Sand!! Our babies are safe to travel due to the lack of sand as a filling.
When a baby is finished, he or she will be given a name (which you can change if you wish, just let us know before we fill in the certificates).
The time, date and weight will also be noted.
Our babies come with
A Certificate of Authenticity signed by the artist
A Birth Certifcate
A Care Instruction Sheet
A baby powder scented nappy
A new day or night outfit of our choice
A blanket to keep them warm and secure on their journey to their new adoptive family
Their magnetic dummy or hair bow
A teddy to keep them company
A baby brush for styling their hair occasionally (please note very excessive hair brushing or very excessive clothes changing may cause some of the hair to be rubbed off. Our babies are collectors dolls for display and cuddling etc, not for children to play with and scruff their hair about roughly. They are not toys and are not suitable for children aged 14 or below. They can have their heads or limbs gently turned for positioning or their outfits changing but we advise against doing this hundreds of times a day!)
We may include with some babies at our discretion, hand sewn clothes, and/or hand knitted or crocheted outfits.
These hand made items have been made by a top haute couture tailoress who has sewn for the Royal family and other dignitaries.
and has designed and sewn one off couture bridal gowns.
Packaging
Our babies are sent in strong cardboard boxes meant for Reborn babies. No recycled ex food boxes are used! Our babies are too special to arrive in any old packing!
We spare no expense when it comes to our choice of packaging.
Our babies are works of art that takes weeks to work our magic on, they warrant good packaging so they arrive in style and undamaged to their new adoptive family.
We hope you enjoy your Happy Hearts Nursery baby. We would love to see pictures of our babies with their new adoptive mummy or daddy, if you would like to share one with us we will gladly add your photo to our gallery, with your permission.