OOAK and Reborn Babies: Andama Galleries

Making the Dolls

The making or reborn babies/dolls takes between 15 and 35 hours depending on both the mould and the artist.

Some babies are rebirthed from a doll sold as a Childs toy or collectable dolls usually from the united states.

Rebirthing a doll
When we as artists buy a completed doll the process of rebirthing begins as follows.
The doll is disassembled and all factory paint is removed along with hair ,eyelashes and eyes.

If the hair is painted on the original doll the artist will remove the paint then sand back the head which gives a better finish to the reborn baby. The sanding of these dolls heads is an extremely time consuming job.

Using a mould
Rebirthing has become such a popular art form that some manufactures are now producing a mould for rebirthing which is a doll not assembled and totally clean of all factory paints, hair and eyelashes, These moulds are a beautiful quality vinyl or silicone or possibly a mix of both.

The process
The doll now being in parts and having been bathed in hot soapy water is ready for the artist to start. The artists chosen by Andama Galleries use only genesis heat set paints, these are of the highest quality making them the preferred choice for this gallery.

These paints once applied have to be heated either in an oven or using a heat gun and until heated will not set or dry. The heating process is repeated many times depending on the number of layers being painted on the doll and the doll must be allowed to cool between heating and painting. Each artist will mix and blend paints to obtain the desired colours allowing the appearance of realism in the finished product.
Once the desired effect has been archived with the skin tones, veins, the manicuring of the babies tiny hands and feet the artist will turn their attention to the hair of the baby.

Because of the arduous process of hand rooting the head of these dolls some rebirthing artists will use wigs however all babies at Andama Galleries have hand rooted hair using the highest quality mohair.

Once the hair colour has been selected to suit the baby each strand is inserted one by one into the head using the finest needles and once completed the hair is glued inside allowing the hair to be styled.

The eyes are then selected and inserted allowing the eyelashes to be hand rooted like the hair, however if the dolls eyes are open the eyelashes are not able to be hand done.

The nails are then varnished to stop the manicure going yellow over time and the lips of the doll are also varnished giving that wonderful baby moist appearance.
The dolls are then assembled using mostly the softest quality fabric body which is filled with Polly pellets ( known as baby fat) and fiber giving the baby a feeling of realism due to the weight yet softness when filled. These babies fold into their new mothers arms just like a real little baby.

Some of our artists also use glass beads for weighing the baby but no sand of any kind is used at Andama galleries as posting items with sand is not permitted to some countries.

As stated before there are many many hours which go into the process of making these beautiful babies and we hope you enjoy the work of the rebirthing artists associated with Andama galleries.