ALMOST done!

I finally have an update on my latest baby!

It took a while, in between work, moving, having a husband to care for and spend quality time with in between spending much needed time with our families it has been hard to do the very detailed rooting job I have going on with "Riley".

(I really MUST think of a name!)

Here is her completed swirl and all I need to do now is thicken her hair up a bit, cut it, and seal it.

 

 

Her little swirl is SO cute! I love it. The micro crown needle is working pretty well, since the 43 gauge forked needles that I have are a bit too small for this type of mohair. I have been using ruby red's mohair from BB and must say that I really like it, it is very soft and the texture is actually really nice. I just can't use the 43 g needles. The 42 g forked needles do really well with this mohair, I just don't have any right at the moment.

 

Here are some pictures with her hair wet, semi-cut, and not thickened with more mohair yet.

 

 

 

 

Not sure about how much thicker she needs to be since she fits newborn size.

We'll see.

 

Lately I have been thinking of getting some tutorials and ebooks, particularly the R.E.A.L  reborn and Precious little baby dust's videos. But they are so expensive! I feel like as a reborn artist that is just making it by doing what I love, these people are really racking up!! Especially when I read in blogs of all the ladies that have ordered them. Don't get me wrong, they do improve your art, and maybe I can justify the $90 when I sell a baby at high dollar because of it, but I wish you could pay $100 or so and get more than just ONE specialty.  Like a combo hair painting, rooting, veining, skin texture thing, you know? But $50+ for EACH category will make you go broke before you get the chance to finish a baby!

 

Oh well, I'll probably break down eventually and get one at a time. Maybe I can go in with someone else (like Amy :) ) and share.

 

Anyway, thank you for looking and if you have any name suggestions for little baby just let me know!!

My Asian Reborn (Mini Tutorial)

Hello and welcome!

Today I began reborning my "Riley" kit by Aleina Peterson.

I thought that she would look great with an Asian skin tone. Now, I wasn't sure what steps I should take to achieve the tone that I was wanting so I did a bit of digging to find out.

I viewed a LOT of pictures of Asian babies on google, which by the way were so so cute!

I found a couple of forums that mentioned some colors used, and of course Nicki Holland's tutorial using Real Effects air dry paints.

Since I use GHS paints, I had to come up with my own game plan.

I had the basic reborning kit (from Bountiful Baby) and a few other colors I ordered separate. and so I ordered also yellow ochre, flesh 05, and flesh 04 all in .5 full oz. jars (quite a LOT) which cost me around $20 US dollars.

And so I began this morning with a fresh, clean "baby".

I started with a wash of yellow ochre.

I wanted to do that first so it would give the kit a good foundation for the skin tone I was going for.

 

 This is the consistency that you want, really nice and thin on the paper towel and nice and thin in your mixing tray.

I used much more than this but needed to mix it up again to demonstrate.

Apply with your brush and then pounce with a cosmetic wedge.

I VERY lightly veined her in the next step, also started with creases and lips.

 

Now comes the first skin.

I mixed Flesh 05, with a bit of Flesh 08, Yellow Ochre, and some thinner.

 

 

Brush paint on sponge, pounce from sponge on vinyl.

 

I'm not sure you can see the actual color difference, but in person it's pretty dark!

Remember to bake at 265 degrees Fahrenheit for AT LEAST 8 minutes.

I bake for 9 full minutes when I have large areas of paint.

And PLEASE!!! take your time! Let all the thinners dry off before baking so that you can check the final area where paint is. I worked for over 11 hours just today and I have a couple of steps still left to do that I will explain at the end of the post.

Also let the vinyl cool completely between baking and painting.

 

So next, I did another crease and also did the half moons on her toes and nails.

This step is usually so hard, BUT I have a great tip!

Use the calligraphy pen that I showed you on my painted hair blog post tutorial!

(oh sorry, I forgot to take a picture of her half moons!)

 

 

Okay, going a little darker.

 

 

 

This is Flesh 05 Flesh 04 and yellow ochre with thinner.

Again, apply the paint to the sponge first.

 

 

 The photo above was to show her little lips. The thinner hasn't quite evaporated off yet so she looks shiny, but she is really just wet.

One other step I didn't show was tipping her nails. I did this with a toothpick and a few coats after I did her half moons because I wanted her nail tips to be brighter then the half moons.

 

 

Okay, the toothpicks are where I drilled her nostrils and was making sure they stayed nice and round.

I have to say that I am so happy with how she came out today! I did do some very light brows so that I have a bit of a guide tomorrow, but after her brows I have just to painter over her little nail bed with a pinky flesh tone, and then varnish her pieces. I just ordered some more mohair for her, I have one order of 1/4 oz black mohair, but I am not quite sure it will be enough, so I ordered more just to be safe.

I hope that you enjoyed todays part of the tutorial on Asian skin.

Tomorrow I am going to make her body and finish up her final baking, start her rooting and take more photos.

Thanks for visiting, and God Bless!

Vintage Bassinet

Hello again! I finally brought the bassinet in since it has been warm and dry for a couple of days. It had a chance to dry out after I wiped it down last week. Next I will be kilzing it (spray kilz for all the nooks and crannies) and then I was thinking about using that new(ish) Valspar spray paint but haven't decided on the color yet, since this is going to be my bed for my personal collection of babies but also my adoptees picture spot. I want to be able to display it.

Isn't it awsome?! Well, I am planning to start on little Riley (she needs a new name) in the morning and also take Eden's pictures so that I can load them and get them on eBay, I don't have to work so that will take up most of my time, but I really want to update you on my progress with Riley.

My plan with Eden is that since she has painted hair, I am listing her for under $150. I am not sure if I will start her at $100 or maybe even less. But I hope she gets a lot of attention. I light painted hair as well as rooted, but I have seen some popular artist on eBay talking bad about painted hair, so I am not sure she will be successfully auctioned, but I hope so. I know that some people are allergic to mohair, but also it is really almost impossible to micro root human hair because often times it is a thicker strand and does not look like newborn hair.

I still need to make a body for Riley, but I am not sure that I have a good fabric that would look right, but more on that later.

Thanks for stopping by!