Thank you Karen and Judy… I am so flattered that anyone would think that I qualify but to be a prototype artist but it takes much more than being able to reborn a beautiful doll. Your name and reputation has to be well known all over the internet. You have to have a demand for your work among collectors and your dolls have to sell for outrageous prices consistently. I see amazing talent in the doll world that goes practically unnoticed. If one truly wants to be a prototype artist they have to not only produce amazing work, they have to spend lots of time and energy promoting themselves. Sadly this is how it works in any business.
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Again, I respectfully disagree. The realborn kits will sell regardless of who made the prototype! Do you disagree with that statement? Not to mention they have 4 different artist who make the prototypes so even if 1 of the prototypes is made from an unknown artist, the other 3 will be made by well known artists.
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BB is not in business to promote new artists - they are in business to sell kits. Sometimes they release a kit and have no prototype artists and have ladies submit photos of completed babies to them and they choose the kits that go in the gallery (this was done for Anna, Chanel, and Candy). I am flattered by the compliments about my babies, but I am by no means the type of artist that scupltors are looking for to do prototypes and I don’t think I could deal with the pressure. Silvia puts out a prototype a week, it seems, and they are all lovely. Marlen has done 2 prototypes for Shawna Clymer, so the possibilities exist for “non-famous” artists.
The beautiful RealBorn babies done by Prototype artists attract alot of attention for the kit so that sales are enhanced and folks that can’t afford to spend a huge amount of money for one by a famous artist have noticed the sculpt and it helps it become popular for collectors. We all win when a kit is beautifully done and sells for a great price.
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I understand what you are saying! I am simply stating that the Realborn kits would sell regardless of who the artist is that did the prototype!
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Probably so, but they will sell better to artists and collectors when they are started off with beautiful versions.
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I SO agree and this is exactly what I was trying to say. I agree that your babies are every bit as beautiful if not more so than some of the prototypes I have seen. I think you would do an amazing job making the reborn. Unfortunately, the other factors play a big part as well.
I do not disagree that they will sell but it is the reborning as well as the notoriety that the artist brings to the prototype that promotes it in the beginning stages when people are still trying to decide if they like a particular kit or not. That does affect how well the kits will sell. If people see a reborn version of a kit sell for big bucks then they are more likely to think they too can make a good profit on reborning the kit.
I completely agree with you! It absolutely helps sell the Realborn’s if a known Artist sells the prototype for a good sum of money. The prototype artist do amazing work!
Again, I completely understand why you use well known artists for your prototype. It is a business decision and being a business owner myself, I support that. I was just suggesting that you could still keep this business practice but just change it a little bit to include one unknown artist. BB has 4 prototypes and they could use their well known artists for them but then also allow 1 unknown artist to do one as well. Then BB wins and the artist wins.
What really started all this was a group of artist talking about how they would like to see the work of a different artist for the prototypes; be it known or unknown. That lead into the conversation of how BB could help a fellow artist out by allow them to do a prototype. They all agree and believe you should have extremely talented and well known artists to do the prototypes but adding one prototype from someone who is unknown wouldn’t hurt BB but it would help the artist get their name out there.
I would venture to say that if you made a pole asking people if they would like to see a prototype from an unknown artist, you would get an overwhelming number of yes responses.
I don’t have a vested interest in this because I am not of the same skill level as Sylvia but I thought I would at least put the subject out there. Thank you for everyone’s input and for being tasteful about it all.
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I think it would be neat if BB would showcase their kits done by other artist too. Not necessarily the prototype but regular kits after they have been released. Sometime I see the gallery’s photo and don’t really care for the kit but then I look at the other pictures of various artist and change my mind. Seeing multiple kits done differently shows details that can be achieved that the prototype might not of done.
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EXACTLY! Well Said!
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Exactly wispywillowrebo I read about it.