I have been asked to repair/reroot reborn dolls a couple of times now by local people. What do you charge for such services, if you provide them?
1 Like
I just saw your Reese featured on Facebook by reborns.com- I mentioned it was the most beautiful reese I’ve seen and he sure is!
Repairs sound like a nightmare- what if it’s a reroot and they sealed with e-6000? I’d be nervous
I guess I’m not much help. What exactly did they need help for with the doll? A repair to me, any time I see it, makes me so nervous.
4 Likes
I have done one so far and it was a lot of work.
This was a Saskia that looked like someone slapped a layer of flesh and blush on her and called it done. Since there was hardly any paint on there to begin with, I thought it would be easy. Turns out that the paint wouldn’t really come off because it stained the vinyl. The sand or whatever weighting material was used was loose, mixed in with polyfil. This was a huge mess to take out. I had to repaint, working around all of that staining and put her back together using my own glass beads, which I contained like we are supposed to.
In short, this was not a repair; this was painting a whole new doll except I was working around someone else’s mistakes. Would have been easier to paint a new doll.
5 Likes
I am not an artist so not really able to give expert advice, but having followed a reborn rescue thread from November/December, I would agree with @DollyPardon. You do not know what you are getting yourself into until you get into it. The mommy might think it’s just a reroot, a paint or varnish touch up, or something, and then you take it apart and it’s a total redo.
That being said, you could also have an evaluation process where the mommy would need to provide the original artist’s info so that you could research their work. Reputable artist: then yes probably just a touch up; not a reputable artist: run away!!!
Post from the holidays: Edit. Turning this thread into a reborn redo thr - #3 by AnnieSokay
5 Likes
I’ve done 2 repairs and am working on a third. The 2nd one was a sorry mess. I have no idea what kind of paint they used but I think they used industrial strength boat varnish to seal it. I had to use acetone, and a lot of elbow grease, to get it off and I’ve never had to do that. The eyes were put in with blue glitter glue and what looked like foam pipe insulation. limbs were from two different kits, neither of which went with the head, and were unpainted. The head, body and limbs just had poly pellets poured straight in. The wig was the wrong size and had been badly trimmed. I basically started from scratch. I switched the limbs for some that fit, painted the kit and then made a new body because the one that was on there didn’t fit (way too big) and I couldn’t stand it-I HATE bodies that don’t fit properly. I also put a new wig on it. It turned out pretty cute and it was very satisfying to me to create it out of what I started with. I got a picture of the little mommy. She looked happy to have her baby back. I didn’t charge any of these people. I just wanted to do it for them.
1 Like
Since I know the person and see her at least once a week, I will definitely take your advice and say that I need to evaluate the damage first. Thanks everyone who weighed in!
5 Likes