Monday, March 12, 2018

Reborn baby dolls – An important piece of Americana


Throughout history, various toys have been created. Every civilization made toys according to the technology that was present at the time. In fact, some of these items have historical value, teaching us how people lived during that period.

When it comes to toys, you might think that video games or plastic guns are the real American legacy. This is not true. Although other countries also had dolls throughout history, they reached their peak in the US. Nowadays, baby dolls are regarded as the American legacy to the world. Some of the most popular dolls are reborn baby dolls, highly collectable items which are popular all over the world. There are big collections of reborns you can find online today.
 
What are reborn baby dolls?
Dolls were created in a human image. Kids could play with them by moving their arms and legs, walking them around, etc. It is a role-play game that was always an important part of growing up for both girls as well as boys (just remember G.I. Joes and other plastic soldiers).

Due to this fact, people who were creating them always tried to add as much realism as possible. This is how reborn babies were created. Reborn baby dolls (or simply reborns) are dolls that are further modified to be more realistic. They are often called lifelike dolls, and this is a pretty good description of the item.

First reborns were created during 1930s when doll lovers started a trend of changing and improving paint, fingernails, hair, eyebrows and adding other small details to already existing dolls. In a way, this was improving the doll.

The trend persisted for quite a while without becoming mainstream. Still, given that dolls were always popular as collectables, some people started noticing reborns more and more because they were much better than other manufactured dolls. Furthermore, every reborn was unique (at least it tried to be) in its own right. This means that once you buy one of these dolls, you will be the sole proprietor of a unique item, which makes them even more valuable in the eyes of doll lovers.

During the 1990s, some of the doll companies started employing reborn artists either part-time or full-time. They started designing lifelike dolls for them, and reborns finally became a mainstream attraction. However, there are some experts who claim that dolls produced this way shouldn’t be regarded as reborns due to their lack of uniqueness. In other words, every reborn should be hand-made.

How are reborn baby dolls made?
On paper, the process of creating reborn dolls is rather simple and straightforward. In practice, it takes a lot of time and skill to master all the techniques. Given that a doll artist has to work with all these small parts, there is lots of opportunity to make a mistake. This is why you need to create lots of dolls until you’ve mastered the process.

Here are some of the things that a person has to do during “reborning”:

·         Disassemble a doll and wash all of its parts

·         Paint all the parts (usually has to be done more than once)

·         Bake the parts in the oven

·         Add hair or mohair

·         Add various small details and accessories

·         Dress a doll

 Initially, artists would use a finished doll to begin the process. With the increase in popularity, doll companies started selling reborn kits. These kits have all the necessary parts as well as tools that an artist needs to create a doll.

It usually takes between 30 and 40 hours to reborn a doll. Sometimes, it might take even more.

When it comes to prices, they are based on several factors such as the popularity of a doll artist, the quality of parts, the overall number of details and so on. The cheapest reborns are around 50 dollars. The most expensive one was sold for more than $20,000!
 
Last thoughts
If you’re looking for something to decorate your baby’s room, you might as well go for reborn dolls. When your baby girl grows up a bit, she can play with them.

Keep in mind that reborns are quite delicate and can easily be broken. So, ideally, you should wait for a bit until you let your child play with them. Of course, there is always an option of keeping them to yourself and starting a collection.

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