To kick us off we start with a tutorial on the basic equipment you need to reborn a doll. You can use pretty much anything that will leave an impression in paint in the art of reborning, so it’s good to have a variety of sponges and brushes in your reborning kit, sponges don’t necessarily have to be expensive, you can use bath sponge, cosmetic sponge, sea sponge, pouncers or cellulose sponge, an economical tactic is to buy some cheaper bath sponges and rip or cut bits off to use in your painting.
Cosmetic sponges are highly recommended because they have a nice flat surface at one end and can be held easily. Also these can be purchased quite inexpensively in largish packets from places like ebay so they are easily replaced. You can also use circular sponges available from leading chemists but these do prove to be a more expensive option and possibly better avoided when just starting out in reborning.
Pouncers which I like because you can write on the bottom of them with the colour of the paint you are using which makes organising your colours (some of which are very similar) much easier. Pouncers give a nice even speckling of paint. Although they are called “pounce and toss” I have found they are quite hard wearing and very reuseable. The only downside to them really is they are quite short, they would be easier to use if they had a slightly longer body to them.
You will need an implement to scoop small amounts of paint out of your pots and there are a variety of little tools you can use to do this, the sticks used in places like Costa Cafe to stir hot drinks are really handy (shush don't tell anyone) was well as cocktail sticks, craft sticks available from places like Hobbycraft and the labels used by gardeners to identify plants. I recently got hold of a tiny little plastic spatula that came with a mini cosmetic jar which I love and wish I had lots more of because it is reusable and cleanable.
An essential reborning item is “thinners”. This is 100% mineral spirits and is often called “White Spirits”. The main issue with thinners is the smell, a lot of people find regular White Spirits can give them headaches, but there are low odour versions available, Bartoline White Spirits is a favourite with many reborners, I personally prefer to use Bob Ross Thinners, it really is low odour and doesn't leave your baby looking chalky which some other thinners can do. It is however more expensive to buy but I feel worth the results are worth the extra after all if you are going to spend £60 on a kit the last thing you want to do is skimp on the thinners and ruin the end result.
Other useful items in your reborning kit will include cotton wool balls and cosmetic cotton circles or even squares, these are really useful for cleaning your kits (if need be) or for testing whether or not your GHSP has completely cured in the oven. They also come in really handy for wiping up spills (if you are a klutz like I am) Q-tips are also really handy to have about, they are small enough to get into crevices to remove paint that you might not be able to get at with a cotton wool ball.
Another basic item to have on hand is kitchen roll, doesn’t have to be the expensive kind either, you just need to have it on hand for wiping up messes, for wiping brushes on and for dabbing excess paint onto. I always have a few layers of it under my brushes and palette for swiping my brushes on.
There are a number of different paints on the market for using in the art of reborning. Lots of people use Acrylic paints or oils and a growing number are using Air Dry Paints, all of which have their merits and their enthusiasts. But for the purposes of this tutorial I am going to talk about Genesis Heatset Paints because they are what I work with personally.
Genesis Heatset Paints or (GHSP) as they are often referred to are an oil based paint that only really sets when it is exposed to the correct amount of heat for the right amount of time. GHSP are easy paints to work with, very forgiving of mistakes which you can correct any time up until you heat set them. Only a tiny amount of paint is required in painting a reborn so although the 5ml paint pots look tiny they do last a considerable time. GHSP do come in larger 1oz pots as well but it is better to invest in the beginner set or the small 5ml pots until you are certain that reborning is a hobby that you want to do long term… as I said the 5ml pots last quite a long time!
Another important tool is your paint palette for using GHSP you have to use a ceramic palette, GHSP reacts with plastic and stains them so stick with ceramic. They may be a little more expensive but it’s a long term investment and unless you drop it, your ceramic palette will be your friend for many years. Another good purchase if you are going to reborn long term is a large paint palette, if you are using a lot of a specific paint colour on a doll sometimes the little paint wells just aren’t big enough.
The final items in your reborning arsenal are brushes, good brushes are essential and an investment in your art, you can collect over time a good selection of stencil brushes, Mop’s, Filberts, flat brushes and round brushes. Your brushes are an important tool so buy the best that you can afford as they will last you a long time. It can be heartbreaking to work on a doll and find the finish ruined by hairs shed from cheap brushes. I cannot stress enough just how important a tool and what an investment good brushes are, you are better off buying a few good quality ones than buying lots and lots of cheap ones.
by Lisa Pybus -
Best Beloved Nursery
For the upcoming issue of Hello Dolly - due out in February 2010 the cover competition is "Winter Warmer". How you interpret that theme is entirely up to you and we can't wait to see your entries. The closing date for the competition is 15th January 2010.
