She reminded me of a baby giving open mouth kisses. Just imagine lots of drool.
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Thank you for letting your daughter enjoy her passion of dolls,and not allowing the negativity from family members.As a young child I have loved dolls all my life.I was told I was to old to play with dolls.My dolls too was given away.At age 65 going on 40(
) My passion has.not change, Although my collection has,from Annette Himstedt to Reborns dolls.I have 2 sons and 1 grandson who never had a passion for dolls,and if they did,it would have not been a problem.Fine jewelry,handbags and dolls a passion of mind since I was 5 years old.Thank you for standing up for your daughter and yourself for the love of Dolls:smiley:
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I had always loved dolls! I still have my first couple 
But what really started the love for me was when I was about 3-4. My mom took me to a small doll shop in our town and I found a sugar britches doll! I would NOT put him down for anything. My mom didn’t have a lot of money and was newly separated/divorced from my dad. So, the shop owner decided he would hold onto sugar britches for me and I would do work around the house and pay on him whenever I could. So, every week my mom would take me and I would get to hold him for awhile and give the man my allowance for the week. I did eventually get to bring him home!
Then years later, we found a flea market that sold dolls (I think maybe lee Middleton? But maybe not…) and we got so many of those! They also let us choose how we wanted our dolls to look and we could build them there! This is what made me grow a passion for creating them!
I eventually stumbled across the reborn berenguers on eBay and instantly wanted to learn how to make them! Research on these dolls eventually led me to the reborns we have today! I never did get to learn how to make them back then…but in 2020 I did get the chance! And I love it! 
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I always loved dolls. Back around 2004, maybe, i was at the fancy mall in dallas and they had a display of berenguers. So i collected a few of those. I looked on ebay for more and somehow came across the search term “berenguer reborn”.So thats what i thought they were called. So i eventually searched for reborns, i bought a couple but they were so expensive i thought about just learning to make them for myself. I took a class. Down the rabbit hole i went.
I guess I must have started Loving dolls from the day I was born. I can’t remember a time when they were not the “toy of choice” for me. My sister never had any time for them. When I first came to this country at 14 months I had a little rubber dolly named “Pinky” she was in every picture with me from then on (until I left her in the sun one day and she melted) Yikes, Breakdown!!!
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Prior to collecting reborn dolls, I collected Lee Middleton dolls. I got my first LM doll when I was 13. It was called “This little piggy boy.” and I named him after Cody Linley who played Jake Ryan on Hannah Montana. Hannah Montana was very popular at the time. Soon after, I discovered reborn dolls. I was amazed by how life like they looked! My mom thought they were creepy at first but eventually let me get one. I got my very first reborn in 2013, which was a custom made Cooper by Jessica Schenk that I named Christian who is still with me and loved today. Ever since, I have really enjoyed the reborns and I have recently got into trying to paint them. I would say I’ve always been a fan of baby dolls. But I would say my love of baby dolls really started in 3rd or 4th grade.
I was a kid who didn’t get new toys, most of our baby dolls we got from cousins or the thrift store. They were usually naked and had horrible hair. I didn’t cuddle babies much but I did love cutting and brushing hair and making them clothes, and playing dolly hospital was my favorite thing to do, old dolls make great pitiful patients.
I knew a woman when my sister and I were growing up who had the most beautiful doll. She was toddler sized had perfect hair that looked so real, not that shiny nylon stuff they sew on vinyl head. She had this beautiful hat box full of REAL clothes that fit her, including shoes. My sister and I would dress that doll a million times when we visited. It was so realistic and magical.
I also have a friend who kept her childhood doll, a composition, big, like Big Joseph, he is a well loved boy, with old pretzels that rattle around in his head. He has a mouth open just enough for a bottle (and pretzels). She keeps him dressed in her kids baby clothes and brings him to events for fun, he has become a little mascot for our gatherings.
In 1997 I was at a farmers market downtown and there was a store that sold only handmade objects. They were having a sidewalk “show” for a group of doll artists. They had these large-fish baby dolls painted “realistically” not by todays standards but they were impressive and they were weighted, I had never felt a baby like that before. They were dressed in real baby clothes, hats, crib shoes. At the time they were going for 350 (?) I thought it was way too much money for a doll but I really wanted one. It took me back to that doll with the hat box.
Fast forward to four (?) years ago and a friend of mine found reborns by accident. She had a lot of pregnancy loss, she was in a bad place with IVF, not knowing if she was going to ever have a child. She asked me to make one and I did. I was reluctant but I finally agreed, honestly I just didn’t think I could, it wasn’t something I had ever done and it didn’t really appeal to me. “I don’t do realism” I told her.
I did two, a Celeste and a Sam or Liam by BB. Celeste was a nightmare, Lordy someone has that baby and it’s a hot mess. The baby she ended up with has a nostril that is a little melted because I was using a heat gun at the time. I did applied lashes, pluggy rooting, She didn’t care. She still has him, and twin boys that are not made out of vinyl. The first baby I sold was Isaac with his funny looking face.
I think I have painted a million babies since then, some of them I wish I could erase from history but some of them I am very proud of. Never thought in a million years I would be doing this but I am still having fun.
If these babies were around when I was little I would have lost my mind.
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I always loved “babies “, had several doll babies as a child, my favorite was a 6 month size w cloth body and vinyl limbs. Our town had a resale shop where my sister and I would spend our 25 cents allowance on nickel and penny real baby sleepers, gowns,dresses:blush: our babies were well dressed and well loved. When I was in 3rd grade our house burned while we were at school, all of our precious babies and a live litter of kittens were destroyed 
I never replaced my large collection.
Years later after I had my own kids we were stationed in Germany, the stores had the most realistic beautiful babies, but not what you spend money on when raising your own kids, Fast forward, kids nearly grown and saw Ashton Drake dolls, bought Emilee and Mathew on pay plan and they lived in the cradle my kids had used:blush: Still have them in original clothes 
About 10 years ago I accidentally found reborn on E-bay, was mesmerized and paid $100 for a Paige finished doll, my husband threw a fit! But I became obsessed and researching found the bb site, I requested a start up kit for Christmas (Tayla”) was so proud of that badly painted pluggy haired baby! Surprisingly a friend requested I paint her daughter one for Christmas and that started it, used that money to buy more kits and the next few years every doll sold, was replaced by kits and supplies.Sold quite a few there for several years, requesting kits for holidays if supplies were low. Grand daughters came along and dolls became gramma gifts rather than sales:blush: My cradle is still in the kitchen but now filled with unsold, loved by grand kiddos dolls. I have attempted to sell very few in recent years and have way too many that I had to keep, pretty much out of room so I sol most stuff off, keeping a few kits for future “need to paint babies “ I do have that new grand daughter that just may love dolls after all:blush:
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