My Portrait Babies

The next thing I have tried are Portrait Babies. I have finished three Portrait Babies. The first one was a Baby with a Silly Smile. (dressed in a Bunny outfit) I wanted to buy one of eBay ID whiterabbit's babies with silly smile and they always go so high, I can never get them. So I took the picture and tried to make one like them. It kind of looks like them.

Next I found a crying picture of my grandson Tanner soon after he was born , actually, in the delivery room. I made the head first, even glued on hair and it wasn't very good. So I waited a while, pulled off the glued on hair, and put new clay on the old head and resculpted it. It looked much better. This time I baked on sparse medium brown hair and it really turned out good. I bought the cutest white trimmed in baby blue romper with a matching hoodie and booties from my friend Anabell. He looks darling in that outfit.

Then I took my daughter Kelly's hospital picture and copied that one. I really worked hard on this sculpt...at least three days on the head alone. The eyes are just barely open. If I remember right it was hard to get a picture of Kelly with her eyes open. They tried to take them three times and this was the best they got. I also baked on sparse light brown hair. I should have cut more off because Kelly didn't have a lot of hair...especially in the front. But the mohair looked so pretty, I just couldn't make it so short. The whole sculpt took me well over a week. I made the fingers on one hand spread out like Kelly's right hand was in the picture. I made one leg stretched out and the other one pulled up so she could look like she was trying to wiggle when she was on her tummy. I also dressed her in one of Anabell's dainty white trimmed in pink crocheted outfits. It was a sweater with flower embroideries, a plain white top, shorts in white with pink trim and matching booties.

Have You Ever Tried "Flocking" or "Furring" to Make Animals Have Fur?

The first thing I tried was "Furring" and this is how I did it. I went to the Goodwill and found a big teddy bear with reddish brown curly fur. I started cutting it off with my good sewing scissors and storing the small chunks of curly fur in a plastic bag. Then I made some little Pro sculpt clay teddy bears and used glue to add the curly chunks of reddish brown fur. They were pretty easy to do and looked very sweet. I think I will look for teddy bears of other colors and start clipping off the fur and storing it in plastic bags.
For the "Flocking" I purchased many colors of the flocking on eBay. The directions said to use those yellow and red plastic squeeze Mustard & Ketchup bottles to spray the flocking. That works pretty good. You make your clay animal, cover it with glue, and put it in a tall box or ice cream bucket. Then you spray it with the color you want to use. I haven't tried two colors...not quite sure how you would do that. I made two medium size jointed mice and a large jointed white mouse (all made of clay) and some very small dogs. Two were Chihuahuas and one was a mutt. Their bodies were cloth and the paws, heads, and tail were made of clay. They were fun to do also.

My Little Reborn Elf Baby

I have been wanting to have a reborn Elf or Fairy baby but they are so much money on eBay. So I decided to make one of my own. I started looking for a small reborn 10-15" that would make a good elf. I finally found one that was perfect...15"....already reborn and for sale on eBay. I sent a message to the lady who made her and told her what I wanted to do if I won her. She said she thought it sounded exciting and would be happy to send me the complexion color paint that she used on her. So I did win her and she did send me the paint with little Baby Zoe Marie...I added the Marie. What a perfect name for an Elf Baby. As soon as I got her, I took her head off, made pointed clay ears, painted them with the same color as her face, and put them back on. I bought some cute preemie outfits for her and dressed her up. She turned out darling...I really love her. I sent the lady who made her pictures showing her new ears and she thought she was so cute too. She has a magnetic pacifier that she uses.

The little boy baby in the picture above is the Silicone Baby Matteo that I plan on making into an Elf Boy Baby. He feels so good and heavy, but with soft vinyl. I bought some special clothes to put him in too when he is an Elf.

Raggedy Ann and My Cowboy, Cowgirl, & Baby Cowboy

I made these heads a long time ago and decided I should finish them up. Ann is a little girl in a Raggedy Ann costume. The costume is hand made and removable. Even the red yarn wig. (I made the wig.) Then Ann can wear any other 6-7" outfits and be a regular girl. See her little knitted Purple dress?

The Cowboy (Billy), and Cowgirl (Jannie), and the Baby Cowboy are all dressed very cute. I made the leather vests, the belts, leather boots for Billy and Jannie, the diaper and bandanna for Baby Cowboy, the leather added to Jannie's pants, and the really cute cow skin blankets. I have a leather cow skin trunk that I can display them in and around with a pony and a leather saddle. I also made a stick and clay brown pony for the cowboy baby. They are all wearing cowboy hats too.

There are Even A Little More Babies but...

Above: Two Pictures of the Newborn Baby Girl Yawner in Pink Knit Sweater Set

Left: New Born Baby Boy (Jacob) in Blue Knit Sweater Set

These are the babies that I have made so far in 2010. I have tried to make realistic newborn infants. Each baby has taken me a week or more to complete. I have been experementing with different types of weighting the babies. The boy and girl babies in the hand made onesie have be weighted firmly using Pol Fluff and Pol Beads. They feel nice and tight when you pick them up and can be reasonable posed with this weighting. I really like the way they feel when you pick them up. But when you pose them you sometimes need props or tape, etc.

The boy and girl babies in the hand knited sweater sets have been lightly weighted with Poly Fluff and tiny Glass weighting beads. This makes them light, floppy, and very easy to pose in many positions. I think I really like the poseibility but I'm not sure I like them so light to hold.

Left: Newborn Baby Girl (Emmee) in Pink & White Onesie Set

Left: Newborn Baby Boy in Blue Bear Onesie Set

I know you are getting sick of them. I am. I have sold more than I thought I had. Where did all that money go? Anyway, this year,(2010), I have been really working on making Very Realistic Newborn Babies. I have had to make myself slow down...this is really hard for me because I liked to finish a baby in one day...and now I maybe take a week to complete one. I have been collecting pictures of babies to really see what they look like...ears, eyes, head shape, nose, neck, hands, fingers, feet, toes, tummy, and bum. I have been buying or trying to make only newborn baby clothes. The first three I made are starting to look like newborns. I am posting their pictures. One of the things I am trying hard to do is to make sweeter faces. It is very hard for me...all my faces seem to look too stern and all alike.

A Few More Babies!

First: I kept this little St. Paddy's Day Baby

Second: Dewdrop the pink Fairy

Third: St Paddy's Day Baby

Fourth: Newborn Baby Girl with her Dolly

Fifth: Tiny Crib Cap Baby Girl
Sixth: Newborn Baby Boy with his froggy

And Even More Babies!

Left: Miniature Clay Piggy Banks

Above: Newborn Panda Baby

Above: Newborn Twin Elve Babies
Above: Newborn Christopher Robin

Left: Yawning Baby Carrie

And Still More Babies

Left: Little Girl in Yellow and Blue Outfit.

Left: Little girl in Pink and White outfit.

Left: Tiny little Handful of Babies

Little Elf Boy in a cute little Froggy Outfit...the booties are webfooted.

Left: Baby Fairy with beautiful hand made wings.

And More Babies

First: Big Boy Yawner
Second: Baby Hatching in Egg

Third: Twins in matching outfits

Fourth: Daisy the mouse

Fifth: Rosie the mouse

More eBay Babies

Sweet Valentine's Babies

Left: Baby Girl in Pink Christening Dress

Left:Baby Girl in Pink Nightgown and in a Bunny Bag


Below: Baby Boy in knitted outfit with Teddy in felted Bunny Ears and nestled in an Egg

Trying out eBay

First: Newborn Baby Boy "Just Ducky "

Second: Animal Egg Babies- Lop Eared Bunny

Third: Newborn Baby Boy in Blue Onesie

Fourth: Little Monkey Girl Baby

After about 5 or 6 very funny dollies, I finally made some dolls that started looking like babies. I bought some cute clothes from some talented ladies on eBay, made some diapers, toys, and baby blankets, and set up my first auctions. Here are some of the first babies I sold.