For those of you who love babies, love baby dolls, love reborns and thought “Hey why spend 500 dollars on a doll when I can spend 4,000 and make one!” I hear you, I get it, and isn’t it fun. I mean you could have a special little reborn that arrives perfect and you can buy all the cute clothes and have fun or you can get up everyday and say to a sculpt “so who do you want to be, lets bring you to life” and have a LOT of fun.
For those of you who thought, I can turn this into a business and then when my family says “you spent how much on what?” You can say “hey I am running a business here, this is an investment, I am an artists!” I hear you, I get it, and isn’t it fun. Your secret is safe with me.
For those of you who said, "I can do that, man I am going to make so much money, a Kardashian is going to buy my baby for 14K, I am going to go IG, TikTOK viral! I am going to turn my garage into factory and slap some paint on these bad boys, how hard can it be. Stack the cash up on my dining room table like a boss! uh…how did that go for you? but I hear ya, I get it, everyone is looking for a good side hustle so you don’t have to shlep you booty over to someone else’s factory at 6am and get paind minimum wage, come home tired, and you had no fun at all.
I think there is a happy middle, and some people show up with all the talent, some have to work hard to build skills and some people, well it isn’t as easy as it looks and it is ok if this isn’t your super power, my guess is you have super powers you still haven’t uncovered, its ok, and you gotta try to find out though.
I think when it isn’t fun anymore it is time to find the graceful exit door.
I am not there yet but I have had moments when I thought, “If I go into that studio and have to look at a pile of babies today, I may cry”. So I take a little break, do something else, usually clean out cupboards, scrub a floor, clean up my garden, shovel up the mess in my kids room (damn kids are messy). I might draw, write in a journal, do chores that have been on my to do list for a a couple years.
Then I got back in that studio, sit down and think, “I am still having fun”.
I know there will be a day when I am done, done, done. When it isn’t fun anymore.
I have put off a lot of other things I love more so I could paint babies and I want to get back to them but it’s hard to think I would never make another baby.
With things slowing down, the knock offs, prices going up on supplies but going down on sales I thought, “this is the exit point” but here I am still painting, telling myself to paint all the sculpts I have and decide then if I am ready to close up the baby shop.
I went out to my baby storage space (it started off a drawer, then a shelf, then a whole bookcase, then a closet, now it is 1/3 of my garage (just storage of sculpts and shipping supplies) and I thought what is the damage here, how many babies left to paint (that was before I bought four sculpts from Jenni).
[This is to let you know you are not alone, or to warn you if you are just starting out, this hobby can get a little hoardy]
I have only 61 sculpts left to paint.
Six of them are sculpts I bought early on when I sold my first babies, sculpts I told myself I was not going to paint until my skills got better. I put them in the way back, a couple months ago I rediscovered them, Evangeline, Americus, Delilah, Anastasia, Twin A and B and a Saskia. I have since painted a couple of those sculpts but the ones I bought way back then have dust on their lids and are still waiting.
I have been painting down my BB since the pandemic, I can’t believe I am down to 13 realborns. Then I have 22 Circus babies (Bountiful baby realborns, and artist made, and artist babies from MacPhersons)
I have four mini babies. I went through a mini baby phase, they are hard work. You would think they would take a minute to paint but they need all the layers, all the baking and you need to get some granny readers that are an inch thick to paint them.
I have some silicones I bought when prices were sky high for them…erg
I am most excited about sculpts I bought to make circus babies. I want to go crazy with them. I have been putting baby clothes aside that will make good costumes.
I am going to do my best not to buy anymore sculpts, use up all my heat set paint, use up all my mohair, my drawer of eyeballs, use up the baby clothes…
If the cupboard goes bare and I feel a sense of relief I will be done, if my heart aches I may keep going. I will have to wait and see, but until then I am having fun and I appreciate every person who buys a baby I appreciate every annoying email I get asking strange questions, trying to find a way to get a baby for nothing, or telling me about a one eyed granny with limp who needs a baby, “full silicone, blonde hair, not too light, maybe some red highlights, blue glass eyes, has a drink and wet system, comes with a nice layette, a big box opening, look likes her husband (insert baby photo of him) and is under 300.00 and I need it shipped by next Thursday its her birthday, thank you granny will die happy”. yes I even appreciate that lady, she knows what she wants and it trying to find a way to get it.
(and don’t read that last paragraph out loud, it is a run on and I know it, grammar is not my super power).
I appreciate that for the las 6 years (maybe more) I have been able to do this, make a little money, not big money, but enough to keep this going and buy a few things I wanted for myself, this year I bought an old creaky, moldy boat with some of that money. I love it, it is a lot of work but something I have always wanted to do, on my own.
If you are just starting out, or thinking maybe it’s time to be done I think you know, you just know if this is for you, and if it is how long that journey is going to last. All the other stuff is just noise and worry. Paint babies because it brings you joy. If they sell bonus, if they don’t you are surrounded by beauty that you collaborated to create.
Side note:
Last week on IG I got a series of reels on my feed that were offensive to me. I did what I have told myself I will never do on my baby IG and that is respond. My rule is don’t feed crazy, it just makes it reproduce. I had a moment of weakness… if you know me I am opinionated and mouthy, I am bossy and I lack filters. I blame it on birth order (oldest) genetics I am Portuguese, Spanish, I have some French and Irish thrown in. I don’t drink and I dress funny, but all the other stereotypes apply.
So I engaged. I found it amusing that some replies to my comments (and there were several) were, “You’re stupid, you are a sheep, the world is ending and you are painting your kids up like clowns, you are sick”
“I looked at your profile, this looks suspicious, I think this may be a trafficking site, if I were you I would shut it down sicko”
“Look what you are doing to your children, what is wrong with you, this is abuse”
I sat for half an hour reading and laughing.
I guess they went to my profile…
They thought those were my children?
I am kinda flattered but also very confused, and I have to admit a little entertained.
One guy said I was sooo stupid and evil that if I was sitting next to him he would cut my larynx and laugh at me as I bled to death…
No more commenting on IG. Lesson learned (and I blocked and reported that guy for what it is worth).
It use to be a fun place for art, it has changed a bit.
That is what is happening in my strange little brain and baby workshop.
What is happening in yours?
G
