photographing ethnic babies

yikes why do I have so much trouble photographing ethnic babies??? its either way to light and they look white or its way to dark and they look way off colour...... makes me feel a bit like goldie locks must have felt lol

Finally my dad has taken pitty on me and has said he is going to show me what to do! ever since I started making ethnic babies I have been harrasing him and he keeps saying " play with the camera, learn for yourself" "If you don't teach yourself no one will" etc etc I guess it goes to show you can wear a stuborn man down if he is your dad and you take after him! it just takes time lol

Well this is one of my latests babies affectionately known as "Shim" (shim stands for She/Him) as shims' mum is going to get a surprise of the sex of the baby  and yes this is the baby I have had soooo much trouble photographing. (although most of the ethnic reborns in the past I have had trouble with as well)
So this may or may not be shims actual colouring lol! I will see if dad keeps his word tomorrow and then will compare photos!

I am so happy with how Shim is looking in person ... dare I say my best yet?? I think so I hope I haven't jinxed myself now lol.

As for the other baby well that is Lorena Mae..... I feel like I have been working on her forever! Has anyone else ever successfully made this kit? She is terrible! Not the sculpt I actually like the sculpt  its the vynil! Horrible horrible horrible I have had to strip her 3 times now and even before the stripping I was having paint stick issues and now I have done 20 layers and counting (super super thin its the only way I could get the paint to stick) and she is only just starting to change colour... and ofcourse she is going to be a milk chocolate baby so that means I may litterally be working on her forever! any advice is appreciated... but i'm guessing I just have to keep plugging away on her ... So I guess its a good thing that I am stuborn as I am not going to let this kit beat me! I will get her looking brown tomorrow... hopefully!

hugs Gayle

2nd place!

Well I am very proud of my little Brishan, he took 2nd place in the baby banter baby of the year comp!! woohoo, I never expected that!.

A huge thank you to all the members of baby banter who voted for my little man, and a big congratulations to Judy Gray of Kisses from Heaven who took out first place with her Welcome Back Taylor. It was a well deserved win Judy well done!.

new baby for the new year!

Well  baby Brishan has been finished in time to enter him in the "fussy" reborn compition being held by Samantha Gergory
I have enjoyed bringing this little one to life so very much! He is even better than I had imagined he could be.
Brishan will be available for adoption early in the new year

I will also be entering Brishan in the Baby Banter baby of the year comp will keep you up dated as to how he goes.
hugs Gayle

Native American Reborn Girl Doll Ordinary Miracles Reborn Nursery

Winona has also been finished. She was made from the beautiful Gabriella by Reva Schick. I am over the moon with how she turned out and love her so much that Ihave decided to keep her for myself I know thats alittle selfish but I just couldn't bare to part with her. plus she will go beautifully with the other keeper baby I am planning on making myself at some point soon!

A Message From Baby Banter

Missing Baby

This beautiful little baby was created by JUDY GRAY of Kisses from Heaven Nursery and was a keeper baby.

Judy went to great lengths to obtain this welcome back Taylor sculpt and spent many many hours reborning this highly collectible doll for herself.

We at baby Banter are part of her reborning online family and it appears we will be unable to get this stolen baby back , we are therefor searching or another welcome back Taylor sculpt and are prepared to pay for it.

If anyone has one of these sculpts or knows the where abouts of her already finished sculpt please contact me (Andama Dujon )or Judy54 of Kisses from Heaven Nursery or Gayle from Ordinary miracles reborn nursery.

Here are photos of our MISSING BABY and a video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dph18OIyd5U


PLEASE LINK THIS TO AS MANY SITES AND FACE BOOKS AS POSSIBLE.

Have you seen STOLEN Welcome Back Taylor?

Have you seen WBT STOLEN on the 21st November from a doll show in the Uk

WBT was beautifully reborn by a dear friend Judy from Kisses From Heaven Nursery
If you have seen her or know her whereabouts please contact Judy or myself and I will pass the information on to her
Thank you

hugs Gayle

ps feel free to copy and pass around this blog entry.

Calling all reborn sculptors

Now I don't want to beg or anything but would it be possible for someone to sculpt a kit that is specifically a native american/ inuit baby ? pretty pretty pretty please!!!! at least just think about it?
Yes there are a few kits that can be used to create beautiful babies of these races but mostly the asian kits that people are using to create them still end up looking like an asian baby rather than an american indian or an inuit baby either that or they end up looking african american .. I so would love to beable to create a beautiful authentic native american reborn !!!! I realise every race shares characteristics as babies but I just really want a kit that looks native american!! ok I know I am starting to beg lol
If anyone knows of a kit that is specifically native american please get in touch with me! If anyone is sculpting a native american/ inuit baby that will eventually become a kit please let me know! 
I would be so overjoyed to know that it was happening as I love making these babies the most !
... If not I fear I am going to have to start sculpting myself and that is not something I wish to unleash on the world as my sculpting abilities are not that fabulous! lol
thanks
hugs Gayle

Real Effects Paint

Oh my its been 4 months since I have been back here! I really can not get over how fast this year has gone, could someone please slow it down for me? lol

Ok so as for what has been happening in the nursery in the last 4 months.... I have been experimenting with different paints and have decided the genisis is deffinately NOT for me!

So after moving on from GHSP I have been trialing Real Effects paint now and I think I have sort of got the hang of it but not 100% happy. The paints themselves seem great I think it is more to do with my technique, I really do want to figure out how to use these paints for 2 reasons, 1 is because I spent a small fortune on them lol and 2. is because I think they can give a really lovely finish ( I fluked it on my first baby with them but can't seem to replicate it)
 So if anyone who uses Real Effects paint is reading this feel free to give me some pointers please! my main problem seems to be that the paint keeps pearling (pooling) on the vynil surface and no matter how much I blend it appears blotchy in dark skinned babies.

I have finished  3 babies

Kai Ella a custom order from the Arrianna sculpt by Reva Schick

Caleb a custom order from the adorable Trinity sculpt by Dawn Donofrio

and Leon a custom order from the Ava Raine sculpt by Laura Tuzio Ross
I have made him a youtube clip  feel free to take a look

There are also several WIPs happening at the moment  hopefully will have some photos to show in the next few days. I'm also planing on doing some experiments with paint applications so exciting things happening here in the next few weeks. I promiss to be back blogging more frequently.
hugs Gayle



Barry by Adrie Stoete

Well as promissed here is a sneak peak at Barry the weather is still grey and rainy so had to use the flash hence the huge colour change from picture to picture. I am hoping to get his real photo shoot done over the weekend just have my fingers crossed for some sunshine :)

Also decided to give another sneak peak of Ava Raine she is going to be a little boy and is a custom order. Unfortunately I find it difficult to take photos of the true colour he doesn't have that orange tinge that is showing up on my screen so I guess that is a skill I will need to work on photography and lighting :)

Hugs Gayle

Time flys

Wow how time has flown! but at least that means I haven't had time to get up to any mischeif lol on the other hand it also means I haven't had a whole lot of time for my babies.
I have however finished one of my custom ordered babies Kendall by Stephanie Sullivan. Her name is now Melanie and she is living happily with her new family. I am still working on her 2 bothers and sister.

I am very close to finishing Barry hopefully by monday he will be on his way to New Zealand. Will put his finished photos up once I have taken them

hugs Gayle

Lace Front Wigs

Sooooo excited the custom lace front wig I ordered for Angelica arrived and its absolutly perfect! The hairline looks sooo natural ... It actually looks alot like rooted hair close up. You can see the little knots that tie the hair in place but thats my bad because I forgot to ask for bleached knots but as she is going to be an ethnic version I actually think the knots won't be as visable once she is painted. I love the fact when you part the hair you can see the "scalp"
I was in such a hurry to take some photos that I just whipped it out of the envelope and slid it right on her head and it fits like a glove! no extra space in the cap and no wriggling and squeezing and tugging to get it on like there can be with other wigs.
I didn't even brush it just had a quick go at straightening the fringe section to see what it would look like straight.

Front View & "Scalp"

Side View & Side Hairline

Back View

i'm sure once I have combed and styled it alittle more it will be even better.

If you are looking for a place to buy a custom made lace front wig for your Angelica I highly reccomend contacting gtwigfashions on ebay I had an excellent buying experiance with them.

Now I just have to wait for her watermelon outfit to arrive  .... i think it should have been here by now but I am trying to have faith it will come soon....
and just waiting on the replacement arm ...... thats a whole other story which I have gone into details about on acouple of forums and will probably rehash it here when I have the energy... its not something that makes me feel happy so I certainly don't want to be thinking about it now but to cut a long story short I am hoping that has really been sent ....
hugs Gayle

Watermelon Outfit

How adorable is this watermelon outfit!

 I think it will look gorgeous on Angelica so I broke my "i will not buy" rule and went ahead and got it.
Yikes!!! there are now more "baby" clothes in my closet than my own clothes lol I think that is a hazzard of reborning that no one considers before we start this amazing art.
hugs gayle

Air dry/Acrylic Paints in Reborning

This has been on my mind for some time now and today was just the straw that broke the camels back ... so I have finally decided to "speak up" so to speak.....

I am getting fed up of roumors being spread around the reborn world about air dry/ acrylic paints.
It isn't the paints that are a problem, the problem is that some of the people using air dry/ acrylic paints in reborning don't know how to use it correctly. Just like with the heat set paints some people don't use that correctly either.



If you use the air dry paints specially formulated for reborning eg bloomers*n*bows or LDC  .... (Jo Sonjas are actually a good product for reborning also)

No they will not change colour over time...

No they will not fade......

No if they are applied correctly they will not rub off over time ....

Yes they are as perminant as genisis paints if applied correctly and the doll is cared for correctly.....

Yes you can create life like skin tones with them you just need to use it thin....

Yes they are slightly more difficult to get used to using as they dry faster and are not as easy to correct but it is achievable



Afew things to remember while working with acrylic paint:
keep it THIN and do lots of THIN layers.
Always mix your air dry paints with a thinner not with tap water!
let the paint dry minimum of 24hrs before sealing nails and lips.


there have been many suggestions that acrylics are an infirior product and its simply not the case.
I have seen babies made with the heat set paints which are not life like at all and I have heard of dolls being sold when the paint not being set properly, does that mean I should then go around saying that the heat set paints are bad and shouldn't be used because of these reasons?? No I don't think so, I think it simply means that the person who created those dolls don't know how to use their chosen medium correctly.
So in a nut shell it really comes down to the fact that there are unskilled artists no matter what mediums are being used.... an artist and their work should not be judged on the medium they choose to use but judge them on the skill they use it with.



whats the old saying... "its a poor trades man that blames his tools"...



ok off my soap box now



hugs gayle

Almost finished

Almost finished with Barrys painting he is going to be such a handsome little one it will be hard to let him go.
He is the nicest vinyl, very easy to work on and no real colour correction needed, he is nice and soft as well but not colapable soft so should be easy to root. will hopefully be starting his rooting in the next few days.
hugs gayle

Barry

Well I have taken a break from the AA babies just for a day and have been working on Barry his mummy would like him to have a peaches and cream complextion so thats what I am trying to achieve.

I am finding it alittle difficult to get back into making the creamy complextions after making so many AA babies its like I have to let my eyes adjust they always seem to pale and I feel like I have missed afew steps lol. but I am finally happy with how he is starting to look my eyes are adjusted to what I am suposed to be making. He still has a few more layers to go before starting on his hair but I really do think he is going to make such a handsome little fellow.

I am still thickening Trinitys hair and Kendall has maybe 1 or 2 more layers to go might get them done tomorrow *finigers crossed*
hugs gayle

Custom Kendall Reborn

 Well I have been busy working on my website and it is nearly all back up and running I still have a few links to fix and I have some photos to load as well but shouldn't take too much longer now.
I've also had some time to work on Kendall over weekend and I have to say she is turning out better than I had imagined she still needs alittle bit of paint work which I am hoping I will get finished tomorrow and then leave her for a few days to make sure she is properly dried then the rooting! lol lucky her head is quite small compared to the babies I am used to working on so fingers crossed it shouldn't take me as long.

Trinity is also coming along nicely he needs some hair thickened up alittle, side burns added and I may also bring his hair line forward alittle too..... I am not so happy with how his shading is showing up in photos I just can't seem to get the lighting right to pick up the shading on his forhead but it is there, he certainly doesn't look as flat on the forehead in person.

I'm also happy to announce that Chou has found her new home and will be on the way there early this week

I hope everyone has had a fun and safe easter weekend!

hugs Gayle

Li Hua now Chou

Well I have finally got Li-Hua by Sebilla Boss all finished and up on ebay click here to visit her auction

Her name is now Chou a Japanesse name meaning Butterfly.
She is such a sweet little baby I just love the face on this sculpt so much I had to buy another one lol but it will be some time before I get around to making it.


I am still busily working away on all my custom orders Trinity has about 3/4 of a head of hair I have been up till 2am most nights this week working on him, my days have just been too busy with work, I am hoping that will slow down again after next week because I desperately need some SLEEP !! lol
Lorena Mae and Kendal both have afew layers done. I still need to do alot of work on their colouring. I will try and get some sneak peak photos up of them tomorrow.

hugs gayle

Baby Tree

How clever are Dads! and what would we do without them!!!
I think my dad got sick of seeing baby limbs spread out all over the place so he made me a baby tree!! lol it looks so freaky with all the baby bits on it but its so cool!! lol
THANK YOU DAD!!!

hugs gayle

Custom Trinity WIP

here is a sneak peak at the biracial/ light toned AA trinity I have been working on for a custom order. He will have brown eyes and black hair, there is still a lot of work to do on this little man.

hugs gayle

Li-Hua

I have enjoyed working on this kit so much! The vinyl is PERFECT to work with and she has such an adorable expression! I really would love to get at least one more of this kit at some stage as I have different "visions" of how i'd love make her.

I still have some finishing touches to do on her then she will be on ebay hopefully within the next week,( but don't hold me to that lol).

and then will try and get the tutorial up soon after. The tutorial will only be a partial tutorial showing the techniques and colours I have used to create her, all the extras won't be included such as her little spit bubbles and the hair rooting.

hugs gayle