I have 2 silicone babies I painted in 2013 when I was first learning and neither of them have peeled. I also have a tin Ashton Drake silicone painted by Debbie Henshaw that is several years old and he is not peeling. I do admit that I do not handle my babies a lot though. However, the very first silicone that I painted and sold as far as I know is still holding up very well. That customer writes me every so often to say she still loves him.
I think part of the success is the firmer Ecoflex 30 I painted holds paint much better than these new softer silicones do. The softer silicone dolls do leach oils over time even after they have been sealed and matted. If you want to test this, just lay one on white tissue paper and come back and check it a few weeks later. You will usually find greasy spots. I was told back when I first started that if I wrapped my silicone babies in tissue to transport them to a show not to be surprised to find the tissue oily by the time I got there to unwrap them. It is apparently a normal occurrence. However, I have noticed the soft blend does it much more. Soft blend goes shiny more easily too and again I attribute this to leaching the oils from the slacker. This is why it is now recommended to buy the silicone matting powders and powder your babies often. My older babies were matted with FuseFX powder which I have been told is nothing but powdered sugar. I dunno if that is true or not but until a couple years ago I only powdered them with corn starch as maintenance when dressing to help the clothing slide on well. Never had a one go shiny either.
I really appreciate you taking the time to type all that out.
Andrew has slacker and I did notice his matting coming off. I’m not sure that I matted him correctly the first time though. He did get a second wet matting and that has started to rub off as well. He does have slacker in him so maybe the matting is disappearing because of the oil leaching out. I also use silicone powder as maintenance. He usually needs it about once a week as that’s when he starts to feel clammy. I handle him every day. He is changed daily as well so he gets some serious wear and tear.
Perhaps his wet matte was fine and keeping him powdered has saved his paint. Obviously the way he gets handled when I’m messing around with his features he has spots that the paint peeled that I’ve had to repair. Handling like that is not the way anyone should handle them though.
I think you’ve answered my curiosity about peeling though. People want to say theirs have never peeled or gotten a shiny spot even though they supposedly handle them daily like I do Andrew. I don’t think their definition of daily handling matches mine. I think the peeling depends on how the doll is treated by the owner.
As far as what to matte them with, powdered sugar is corn starch with sugar added to it so why go the extra expense to keep the baby powdered? I don’t use cornstarch because it wears off too fast. Again, my Andrew gets some serious use on the daily. The silicone velvet is nice because it lasts a lot longer. Just Matte is softer to the touch though. I can tell you that the Just Matte does have a sweet taste so perhaps there is powdered sugar in it. I don’t get the sweet taste from Silicone Velvet. (I don’t eat them. I know from the powder puffing everywhere during a wet matte and not wearing a mask like I should be.)
I personally don’t like the idea of using food based powder like cornstarch. I have a fear about rodents or bugs being attracted to the baby. This fear is likely to be somewhat hysteric in nature. I mean, you’re not the only person who uses it and your dolls are not getting eaten.
On the whole thing of keeping vinyl and silicone separate, I now think there is validity to that. If oil is leaching out of the soft blends, then that oil could cause some damage to the vinyl and/paint. I haven’t let silicone sit long enough on any material to notice the oil spots. Why no one can explain that oil thing when asked what damage comes of the materials when they touch is bewildering to me. I believe you over most because you can give the why part. I have a lot of respect for you where silicone is concerned. Seriously, thank you for sharing this information and your experience!
Those look like great ideas. When my older grand daughters were small, I got one of the plaster kits for each of them to make footprints for their Mom. 2 of them worked out great, but one of them just never would work. She put her little foot (or maybe it was hands?) on there and pressed, but it just would not take. I have never understood why. The inkless kit is not very expensive. I am not sure if a person could reuse them or not.
I hope it isn’t theft, because I made plastisol stamps of a realborn footprints last year or so and use them to stamp all my birth certificates… I don’t make a new one for each baby, the footprints all kinds of look the same to me. I had purchased baby footprint stamps before and used them, but the size was so much smaller and they didn’t look realistic. The ones I made look like a real baby’s footprint. I also bought a few of the inkless pads before the stamps and was going to use those for each baby, however they are fairly expensive for single use, so it just wasn’t cost effective.
You are able to reuse the inkless pads! They don’t really dry out (I’ve had one open since January and it’s still working), and they have more than enough ink for multiple prints. I was able to get a print from both of my dogs, a bunch from my geckos and a couple test prints with a vinyl foot and I could probably still get a few more. They’re kinda small so it wouldn’t work for a baby bigger than 3 months probably. It was too small for my big dog’s entire paw print, but his paw is huge
Really? Where did you get them? I ordered some from Amazon, they were $10 each and I could barely get both footprints, let alone multiple uses. Maybe the ones I got weren’t very good.
I got mine on amazon as well. That’s super weird! They might be inconsistent then, some work well and others just don’t work much at all? I can take a pic of all the prints I got with mine, I still have them all lol I originally bought them to get a handprint from my gecko when he was sick, so I could have a tattoo done of it someday. It was hard to get the detail of such a tiny, fragile hand but it worked really well for my dog’s paws.
They must be inconsistent. The ones I got had very little ink it seemed, or were dried out. I had to press so hard to get a print, a lot of the detail didn’t show up and then when I would do the second print it was a lot lighter than the first. I had wanted to do handprints too, but they are too small for that. I only purchased 3 and they were all the same, I used all 3 pads to get 2 sets of footprints and then they were dead.
That’s really weird! Here’s one of my dog’s paw prints, you can see all the detail of his paw and the hair between his toes. And one of my gecko’s prints, he was tiny and very light so I obviously couldn’t press hard on his foot. I must have gotten one of the rare ones with lots of ink lol
It’s hard to say! I feel like a lot of the reviews on amazon were mixed. Some had no issues like me, and some got dry ones that didn’t work well like yours.
They also have ones marketed for pets instead of babies, I wonder if those ones are bigger or work better?
Hopefully you find a solution that works perfectly! I used to make little clay footprint keepsakes for my customs or higher priced babies, those were a hit with the new moms!
I also experimented with dipping the feet in craft paint, then onto canvas or paper to get the footprints. I had to strip the feet afterward, but I did it before painting so it didn’t really matter.
I’m out of Windsor and Newton. Even GHSP stains. I think if that’s what I’m gonna do I’ll do it prior to painting. I am going to try the inkless pad things. If that doesn’t work I’m gonna try heating the vinyl a little to make it more soft before getting the foot print.
To clarify, I used those products up until 2 years ago. 2 years ago I purchased some Just Matte from D3 Creations at the IDTS show. Since then that is what I have used both to matte and touch up babies laying around when I redressed them. I just this month purchased some Silicone Velvet to see what it is like as I was told it would leave a slightly less opaque finish. I do find that to be true but it is more expensive so I will still use my Just Matte to do touch ups. I have also dusted my older Ecoflex 30 babies with the Just Matte when redressing but those just do not develop sheen on their own. I still think it is because they do not have a lot of slacker in them.
Because it isn’t the same as the actual baby’s foot. I wouldn’t have bought a stamp for my own child’s foot print.
It’s that mentality. As artists perhaps it is lost that these dolls are babies to some folks. They take it serious, very serious. I’m not going to argue whether or not people should do that or if it is healthy, etc. etc. etc. I’m just saying that for quite a large part of the consumer side of this community, these are not dolls. Being able to have the foot print of their baby on a birth certificate adds to realism in a very meaningful way.
Speaking from personal experience. All the personalized extras sound nice. But people aren’t usually willing to pay an increased price to pay for them.
Just make sure you aren’t eating up any profit for personalized things. Most buyers don’t care. Just my experience tho. For what it’s worth
