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Therapy babies - Reborns in healthcare

Soft, fine strands of hair appearing to grow out of the scalp; subtle veins scarcely showing through the mottled skin; shadowed wrinkles around the eyes; barely there eyebrows; glossy lips that appear moist. Combine all of those traits with a perfectly weighted doll, and you have a reborn doll. These works of art have been gracing the homes of doll collectors for several years, but they’re not just for displaying anymore. Reborn dolls have found their place as “medical dolls” in a variety of healthcare settings, including long term care facilities, antenatal education, baby massage classes and for medical training.

Arguably the most common use of reborn dolls in healthcare, “therapy dolls” are being introduced to residents in long term care facilities around the world. For numerous reasons, dolls that have a realistic weight and appearance have proven to be beneficial for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Studies have shown a marked reduction in agitation, aggression and wandering in dementia patients who participate in doll therapy. The dolls promote a feeling of well being for some people who normally appear agitated, and they assist residents to communicate with staff and family. Some people use the doll as a tool to explain their own feelings and they often transfer their emotional state onto the doll.

Many residents are aware that the dolls are dolls, but they still value them. We all have a need for attachment and having dementia does not make that need disappear. Holding and caring for the doll provides a sense of comfort and security and meets some of these attachment needs. Other residents seem to believe the dolls are real babies and often refer to them by the names of their own children or grandchildren. Many residents with dementia believe they are at the stage in their lives when they had young children. Providing them with a doll can fulfil the need to parent and rekindle positive memories and emotions. Communication often improves when the dolls are introduced and staff can learn more about a resident’s background by asking questions about the doll, such as “Where was your baby born?” or “How many children do you have?”. Discussing these memories can be very calming to female residents in particular and can help staff to relate to residents with dementia. While not all people respond to doll therapy, studies show that it is a positive and beneficial form of drug-free therapy for dementia patients.

Michele Wilson of Silver Cloud Nursery markets her reborn dolls to healthcare facilities under the term “cuddle therapy”.

I came up with the term "cuddle therapy" after visiting my husband's ailing grandmother in a nursing home. Her roommate had dementia and would spend most of her day cuddling an old rag doll. My mother in law inquired to one of the nurses about this as she thought it seemed strange. The nurse explained that the elderly woman found comfort in cuddling the doll and it kept her from becoming agitated.   The more I thought about it the more it made sense. Babies are so peaceful and serene. What could be more relaxing than cuddling and rocking one?

A day or two later with this fresh on my mind, I started advertising "cuddle therapy" locally.

 I receive the sweetest emails from my customers stating how happy my babies make the elderly women they purchased them for. A personal care worker purchased one for the community/social room of the nursing home where she worked. She said she placed the doll in an old cradle and the women would take turns holding and rocking the reborn and some even crocheted and sewed outfits for her. 

This is something that I think can really make a difference. I plan on focusing more on "cuddle therapy" and reaching out to elderly women in nursing homes and hospitals. I also would like to use heat packs and heartbeats in the reborns because these things will add to the soothing nature. I believe holding a warm, cuddly "baby" that has a rhythmic heartbeat can bring a feeling of joy and peace to anyone.

Michele Wilson

www.silvercloudnursery.com

Michele’s reborns have also been used for other forms of therapy. One neonatal intensive care unit uses a preemie doll to teach new mothers of premature infants how to handle their new babies. Another full size newborn doll is being used in a paediatric intensive care unit to teach infant massage.

Infant massage is a valuable tool for parents to promote relaxation, regulate sleep patterns and relieve colic and gas in their newborn babies. Reborn dolls are being used on a regular basis to teach infant massage to expectant parents. These types of dolls are particularly valuable because the soft bodies allow the teacher to demonstrate a full range of movements and flex the knees and elbows perfectly. The length of the limbs and torso are accurate and allow for the correct demonstration of the massage strokes, and the detail on the hands, feet and ears are useful for indicating where reflex points can be found. These realistic traits have proven to be beneficial in prenatal and antenatal classes as well.

When teaching expectant parents how to handle their new babies, realistic facial and body features are especially important for providing a convincing representation of what is to be expected when the new baby arrives. Using a doll that is the size of an actual newborn is beneficial for demonstrating diaper changes, burping a baby, swaddling a baby, positions for breastfeeding and properly positioning a baby in an infant car seat. Handling a baby doll with a heavy, floppy head will help parents gain confidence for handling their own babies when they arrive.

Catherine Jacobs of God’s Little Ones sculpts dolls, particularly preemie dolls, that are used in a variety of healthcare settings. Having given birth to premature twins herself, Catherine recognized a way that she could give back to the healthcare community.

The first preemie dolls I made were designed by me to be used at a local hospital (by request from the hospital where our own Miracle twins were born) to be used to help siblings bond to a preemie/micro-preemie before they could actually hold their own baby brother or sister.

As well as being used by doulas for educational purposes, and in other prenatal classes, Catherine’s dolls are traveling the world in the name of education.

Recently a Doctor ordered a preemie to help young mothers in third world countries bond with their preemies and practice a new method of kangaroo care. Since incubators are not available, they place the baby skin to skin on the mother's chest, giving the preemie needed heat from the mother. This doctor uses my model as a teaching tool to train mothers how to hold their baby in this method.

Several years ago, Catherine and her husband also had the opportunity to attend the International Perinatal Bereavement Conference and put up a display of her dolls. The purpose of the display was to educate healthcare professionals and parents about the use of the medically accurate dolls as bereavement and loss grief aides. She continues to use her dolls as tools for helping bereaved families deal with their losses.

Catherine Jacobs

www.godslittleones.com 

www.miraclebabydolls.com

The art of creating a lifelike doll can be therapeutic in itself, and many artists have found it to be helpful in their own lives. Karen Green Whitmore of Neverland Nursery has a particularly inspiring story.

I am 34 years old and have two loves in my life... babies and ballet. I spent my entire life as a ballet dancer and instructor until three years ago when I was stricken with Meniere's disease and became disabled. Meniere's disease, in a nutshell, causes you to lose hearing and also brings on terrible episodes of vertigo.   Obviously, I could no longer dance, and I had to find a new way to express myself creatively. Already a collector and lover of doll babies, I discovered reborns on ebay. I was instantly intrigued! I had never touched a paint brush in my life but I knew I could do this! I had always studied and paid careful attention to infants my entire life. I love babies! I drug my husband to IDEX with me in 2007 and he bought me the supplies to begin. Here I am a year later with beautiful babies to show off and I have found the 'something' that I needed to satisfy me creatively. 

Karen Green Whitmore

www.neverlandnursery.com

Whether it is by providing a creative outlet, through education or through “cuddle therapy”, reborn dolls have proven to be more than just art.

Part 1: For the Love of Dolls - The Collectors

With recent media attention focusing on reborn dolls and why people buy them, we decided to do a little research on the topic ourselves. What we found were a variety of reasons for collecting dolls of all types, and some excellent insight into the selection process that goes into choosing a new doll. In this article, collectors Terrie Phillips and Sally Snyder share their stories with us.

Terrie Phillips’ love of dolls began at a young age when she started collecting baby dolls. She eventually gave up that collection, but in the late 1980’s she started collecting again, this time antique dolls and large dolls from the 1960’s.

I had a rather large collection of the Ideal PlayPal series which numbered at least 35 of these huge 36" dolls standing in my house. I went a little overboard and they filled a whole room. A lot of them were MIB and were rare as far as hair color, etc. I had a couple of 36" Shirley Temples and even National Velvet. I also had three of the Bye Bye Babies from the Ideal series. A lot of my collection was represented and pictured a few years ago by Judith Izen in her book on Ideal dolls.

Unfortunately, after a divorce, Terrie was forced to sell off her collection in order to financially support her three children. That didn’t change her love for dolls though, and in 1998 she started making Apple Valley Dolls, which lead to making reborn dolls in 2001. After making over a hundred reborns, Terrie slowed down and now makes four or five dolls each year. She began collecting dolls again, particularly the one of a kind sculpted dolls.

I was really into the Eva Helland OOAKs and other one of a kind babies for awhile. Then I added solid silicone and reborns to the collection. I really like the reborns and silicones as I don't have to worry about them breaking!! It's funny as I don't keep my own reborn creations!

Because I have gone overboard on collecting before, this time I have tried to keep my collection quite small, usually around 12-15 babies. I only have three or four dolls that aren't babies. They are Annette Himstedt dolls and I love their character faces. I venture to say I have had around 200 different dolls in my collection over the past two years that I have bought and sold. I will generally keep one for just a few months and then sell it when I add another to my collection. I usually only have about four or five reborns at any given time, and I only keep the most realistic ones!!

Terrie is a knowledgeable collector, and knows what she wants in a doll.

I'm very, very picky about my dolls. I think it is a lot like art work. When I buy a painting, I want to get something that is done very professionally and I tend to like paintings that are more from the life art category and not abstract. The same goes for the dolls I choose. When I choose a doll, I almost always prefer the babies... around 18-21 inches, just about the size of a newborn. I make my decision based on how realistic they look. The painting on the doll is very important, the weighting is important, but the most important thing to me is the hair!! If it is rooted properly, it makes all the difference in the baby!! I do have a couple of reborn artists who are my favorites and I sometimes pay double the price for their dolls than I would have to pay from another artist. But then I would rather have one of their babies than four of the ones that aren't made to their standards. Again, I think it goes back to the difference between buying a piece of art from a famous artist and buying a reproduction poster. There is a large difference in the prices but there is a very valid reason. I guess you get what you pay for.

I also have about five or six artists that I purchase solid silicone babies from. I am open minded  enough that I would definitely purchase from a new artist if she had a doll I loved and it met my standards. The thing I see with a lot of the solid silicones is that some of them are molded beautifully but the painting isn't up to par. I'm told solid silicone is very hard to paint. Again, the hair is also very important to me. There are certain artists whom I know will always produce a high quality silicone doll such as Michelle Fagan, Suzanne Roberson, Eva Helland, and Laura

Tuzio-Ross, just to name a few.

When asked which doll in her collection is her favourite, Terrie wasn’t able to pick just one. However, next month Lorna Miller Sands will be doing a resin and silicone edition as a portrait of her first grandchild, Addison, and she believes that will definitely be a favourite.

To be able to look back at that doll when Addison is 18 years old and remember what she looked like at 2 months old will be a real treasure and a doll that will always hold a permanent place in my collection!!

Sally Snyder is a collector with a story of dolls and a friendship that developed because of them.

I am in my 50's and I started collecting baby dolls back in 2004 after I returned from several weeks vacation in France. I had seen a Corolle doll there used as a model in the baby departments in many stores. I tried to find one just like it when I was there, Corolle is, after all, made in France, but to no avail. Upon returning home to Washington State, I looked everywhere around Seattle and then on-line. To my amazement, I found that same doll right in the toy store on the Island where I live! I bought her even though I had never thought I would ever spend $100 on a doll!

Searching on-line I discovered something called Reborn Dolls. At first I must admit to thinking that it must be some sort of new Christian doll. I was so surprised to find that it did not! The dolls that I bought at first were both play dolls and reborn dolls that I just liked the look of. I didn't really think about who made them or the fact that I was buying art work. One day I won an auction by an artist named Debbie Henshaw. We started talking at first through Ebay and then privately on-line. We discovered that we had more in common than our love of dolls. We really liked each other! It was so exciting to make a new friend who shared my love of dolls.

Debbie told me she was going to go to the International Doll Expo in Orlando, Florida in January 2007. I was intrigued so I asked if she wanted some company. She said sure and we started planning. We met face to face for the first time at the Seattle airport! She had flown in from Baker City, OR and I was waiting to get on the same flight with her to Orlando. We shared a room and our time in Orlando at IDEX and we had a wonderful time. It was the first time either of us had attended a doll show like that.

We have remained friends and I visited her this past July for a week at her home. Now we are about to fly off to Orlando again on Tuesday! We can't wait.

In between meeting Debbie and now, my collection of Reborn, silicone, resin and OOAK dolls has grown to around 100 dolls! I am not sure just how I could have acquired so many dolls but when I think of selling some off to make room for ones I like better, that are better works of art, I can't. Each one has his or her own personality. 

I enjoy collecting dolls that make me smile. When life gets tough, I can always go into my doll room  to be greeted by smiling babies who always seem pleased to see me! Collecting something that makes me smile is so much fun. Isn't that the point of a collection, to give the collector pleasure? I think so.

Sally also enjoys sharing her dolls by taking photos of them and creating stories, which she then posts in an online doll forum.

Whether doll collecting starts in childhood or later life, if you rotate your collection or build on it, the underlying reason for collecting seems very simple – a love of dolls and appreciation for art.

Join us in the May/June issue of Lifelike Dolls for part two of “For the Love of Reborns: The Artists” where we will explore the reasons behind becoming a doll artist.

How it's made: From Sculpt to Kit

By Sheri McDonald with special thanks to Jamie Lynn and Pat Secrist

Aside from artistic talent, a doll kit is the most important tool that a reborn artist has. Often considered the canvas for these works of art, the doll kit provides a foundation for the artist to build on. The sculpt from which the kit was created is the first part of this artistic process and in this article we will explore the different methods of creating a doll kit from a OOAK sculpt.

Many artists are choosing to create doll sculpts for the purpose of having them turned into limited edition doll kits that they can sell on their own websites or on other reborning supply sites. Jamie Lynn of www.blessedbeginningsartdolls.com is a sculptor who has developed her own doll kits, and is now producing doll kits for other artists through her boutique at www.jamiesbabyboutique.com.

Jamie has four doll kits with BloomersNBows and she sells miniature babies on ebay with the ebay ID jamies*baby*boutique. Jamie’s sculpt Maddison was sculpted with the inspiration of her youngest son who was born fifteen weeks prematurely, weighing 1lb 12.8oz. and just 12” long. A lot of Maddison’s details come from pictures of Jamie’s son when he was in the NICU. Maddison is a Limited Edition of 250 and is currently still available, although selling out quickly.

Jamie is also producing doll kits for Dawn McLeod and Melody Hess.

Dawn sells OOAK minis on ebay and has a series of mini babies coming out this spring through Ashton Drake Galleries. Dawn’s Rhea kit will soon be available, and she is working on a big baby boy as well. The Rhea kit is a dedication to Dawn’s baby sister, Rhea.

Melody Hayes creates OOAK minis and she also has dolls produced by Masterpiece Dolls. She has a set of babies that Jamie’s company is producing and is expected in the fall of 2008.

Jamie described for us the journey of a doll kit from start to finish, starting with creating the clay doll.

·         Start with making an aluminum foil base armature with masking tape.

·         Place about ¼ “ of clay as a base and then start building.

·         For kit babies I add a lot of detail because they can lose detail in the molding process.

·         I like to put a matte varnish finish on my baby before shipping out, just to protect the raw clay from cracking. I use Genesis Matte Varnish.

·         Once the baby is finished, I wrap it very carefully and it’s shipped off to Joyce Chou of Joydolls in China.

·         The mold is usually completed in about ten days.

·         Thirty days - prototypes are completed and shipped out for inspection.

·         Another thirty days – kits are run and shipped out to be sold.

·         The total time frame is usually around three months from the time the OOAK is received in China to the delivery of the kit. Pre-orders are usually being taken after the prototypes are received and reborned for the premier of the kit on eBay.

CREATING THE VINYL KIT IN CHINA

Initially, the dolls are molded as a wax mold. These molds are sent for approval prior to making the master mold and the prototypes are run. Some shrinkage does occur of the cast of prototypes because of the wax. Expect around up to 25% shrinkage of the final kit product from the original OOAK clay sculpture. The vinyl used by Joydolls is a very soft translucent vinyl/silicone mix that is very easy to root. The artist can choose the color of vinyl that he/she wants, and Joyce Chou’s company will match the colour. The artist receives three prototypes of his/her doll.

Jamie is always looking for new talent. You can visit her website www.jamiesbabyboutique.com for more information on having your doll turned into a kit.

Secrist Doll Company is a well known manufacturer of vinyl doll kits, sculpting supplies and reobrning supplies. Most reborn artists have created reborns by starting with a Secrist doll kit. Pat Secrist has provided a comprehensive description of the process used to create these kits in their U.S. based plant.

HISTORY

There was a time more than 50 years ago when America was a leader in the manufacturing of dolls. The greatest hub of activity was New York City where one company made all the wigs, another made the eyes, and a third made the vinyl parts. Today virtually all doll manufacturing is done in China. Secrist Doll Company is one of the last to still be located in the United States. We are located in the Saginaw Valley of Midland Michigan in the middle of a 19th century farm field surrounded by apple orchards and corn crops. We have been making our own vinyl dolls since 1988 when we bought the old school building that I attended as a child. 

From there we learned the secret of making vinyl dolls for ourselves. In later years we bought out a company that had the technology for making metal molds for the production of vinyl dolls. Today we are the only American doll company that makes its own production metal molds for the manufacture of vinyl dolls.

THE PROCESS OF CREATING VINYL DOLL KITS

The process begins with the doll sculpture. The medium can be any kind of clay or other sculpable material. We first make a rubber mold of the sculpt.  Then we cast that rubber mold in an engineering grade wax. This is not candle wax but a special custom formulation that will make it possible to hold all of the detail during the plating process. Next we begin the actual engineering process where by the wax is adjusted and polished. This is the only stage where changes can be made to the sculpt. Imperfections in the sculpt can be corrected and eye sockets can be installed. When the wax step is completed the head or limb will look like marble all shiny and smooth. Now the wax is ready to go into the plating tank where we will grow a metal mold around it. Have you ever grown crystals as a kid in those tiny little clear aquarium-like containers full of blue water? Well, growing molds is much the same.  The only difference is that the cost of the blue water for growing crystals is around $5 while the cost for the blue water for growing metal molds is over $14,000. Don’t try this at home. 

It takes about six days to grow a metal mold. The last step is to take the mold out of the tank and machine it so that it can be mounted in a rotational molding oven. The machining process requires many metal working power tools. Some of them are so tiny that you could use them for surgery in a hospital. Others are so large that you would need a garage to fit them all in. When the machining is done the mold is mounted into a frame so that it can be rotated inside the oven.

The rotational molding technology has been around for over 100 years. It was used in the 19th century for making hollow chocolate bunny rabbits and other confections. By 1948 it was used for molding plastics as well. This oven is special because it can rotate the mold in two different directions at the same time, which results in an even wall thickness in the vinyl part. It also makes it possible to have a hollow part with no seams in it. You need the part to be hollow so that it can be pulled out of the mold through the neck opening. The molding process takes about eleven minutes in all. Our particular machine is a high tech model that is computer regulated for the highest possible quality. You can buy one of these machines for around $165,000 plus shipping and setup. 

People ask if they could mold vinyl dolls at home and the answer is no. This is a technology based process that requires specific machinery. 

 Q&A with Pat Secrist

1. What do you look for when choosing a sculpt to reproduce?

Choosing a sculpt to reproduce involves several factors. The first is realism. The second is a pleasing expression. The third is the quality of the sculpt in symmetry and physiological accuracy. The last is the degree of completeness of the work. I have seen sculpts that were very real looking but the baby was not very appealing so realism has to be balanced with a pleasing expression. Many sculpts have problems such as eye alignment, ears of different sizes, nose and mouth off center and more. This lack of accuracy detracts from an otherwise attractive work. The last and one of the most important factors is originality. Too many sculpts today look alike. This is not the fault of the armature but rather one artist being heavily influenced by another. As artists study each others work they unintentionally begin to move together in a common look. Reborners are demanding something new to work with so originality is very important.  

2. Does it matter if the sculpt has been painted or has hair applied?

Paint on a sculpt is not a big issue when being prepared for reproduction. Hair on the other hand is a nuisance and must carefully be removed without damaging the scalp of the sculpt. We tell our artists not to bother with paint or hair as it only hinders the vinyl process. We like our sculpts to be completely unpainted and bald.

3. Is the original sculpt still intact once the reproduction process has occurred?

The original sculpt often times is ruined in the process. It’s not something that can usually be sold because certain coatings are applied to the sculpt for the mold making process.

4. Can changes be made to the sculpt once the process has begun?

Changes can be made to the sculpt in the wax engineering stage of production. Once a metal mold is in process no more changes can be made.

5. Could you give us an idea of the cost involved?

It costs several thousand dollars to have a doll made in vinyl.

6. How close to the original does the reproduction come out? Is much detail lost in the process?

The vinyl rotational molding process allows for a very high degree of detail. Little if any detail is lost in the process. Changes are also made to correct sculptural problems like flat areas on the head or eyes that are misaligned. 

7. How long does the complete process take? (not including the actual sculpting)

You should expect at least four months.

It seems that creating beautiful and realistic baby dolls is a painstaking process that begins long before the kit is in the hands of the reborn artist. While reborning is often considered an art form with two distinct components; the sculptor and the reborn artist, perhaps it is more appropriate to view the three creative works involved: the sculpt, the reborning and the mold.