Just wanted to pop in and say hello and introduce myself. I have been a collector of reborns off and on for the past 8 years and a long-time reader of the DollFan forums but thought I should finally say hi.
A little about me... I have always loved dolls and had Barbies, Cabbage Patch and American Girl as a child and also collected porcelain dolls. I remember thinking as a child that it would be fun to have a baby doll that was life-sized and could wear real baby clothes but there weren't any good options back then. Fast forward to my adulthood -- I got back into collecting American Girl dolls as an adult big time and my collection grew for many years. One day when I was searching Ebay and stumbled upon reborns and was just amazed (and a little freaked out at first!) at the realism and artistry. I was fairly newly married at the time and my husband and I weren't even thinking of starting a family yet but I totally fell in love with the doll I saw at the time. It was the Lotus sculpt by Adrie Stoete and reborned by Jacalyn Cassidy. I later added two other reborns and enjoyed them at home, but was never all that active in the hobby.
Fast forward a few years, and I had my daughter Audrey. Being a new mom was the most amazing experience and I remember just wanting to freeze frame this one moment of when I was holding her as a baby and wishing that I could always recapture that time. At the time I was reading about the new full body silicones on DollFan and decided to contact Andrea Arcello to see whether she might be able to do a portrait doll of my daughter. I wanted a sleeping sculpt but Andrea wanted to do an open-eyed version. We compromised and she decided to do twins (one sleeping, one awake). There were many projects already in the works so this project took a while to complete, but 3 years later, Emerie Mei was released. She is the portrait sculpt of Audrey when she was about a month old. A year after that Melina, the sleeping twin, was released and is the portrait of Audrey asleep at the same age. I feel so blessed and fortunate to have these two portrait babies. They are my most precious dolls in my collection.
My daughter is now 5 and I also now have a 2.5 year old son as well. Both my kids are my loves but I have also rediscovered my love of dolls recently. I recently got Audrey a relatively inexpensive silicone 10 inch baby from Ebay (she named her "Baby Grace" and takes her everywhere!) and we also love collecting Paradise Galleries dolls together. I have also recently acquired a beautiful Saskia from Ebay and Connolly from Jo here on DollFan and have two more babies on the way. So, I guess you could say I've been re-bitten by the reborn bug. I also have another exciting project in the works which will be a while coming, but will be sure to share with you ladies once it comes to fruition.
I am so excited to get back into this hobby and for the first time I bought tickets to the Rose Doll Show this summer and am also planning to take the air dry painting class, as I think it would be so amazing to learn this art form. I work full-time, so this would be just a hobby for me but I hope it's something that I can continue to love and enjoy and I really look forward to meeting and getting to know the many wonderful ladies on this forum.
Sorry this is so long and thank you for letting me share!
Warmly,
Lynn
