Those of us engaged in the hobby of reborning put a lot of time, money and effort into buying the right reborning supplies to painstakingly reborn our baby dolls. We need to use a lot of tools and chemicals (paints, glues, etc) and in the case of reborning, what you don’t know CAN hurt you, or more specifically, your doll!
Here’s my list of five ways to ruin your reborn baby doll, in the hopes that it will save you from these stomach-twisting “oh no!” moments, which many unfortunate reborners in the past (and sadly, present) have faced:
Oh no! #1
Try to glue eyelashes onto your doll head with clear nail polish.
First of all, it truly isn’t a very good adhesive. Secondly, if you goof up (let’s face it, it happens) in order to take the lashes off again you’ll have to follow step number two on my list:
Oh no! #2
Use nail polish remover on your doll.
Regular nail polish remover contains the solvent acetone which can be damaging to plastics and vinyl. Of course you know that our dolls are made from plastics and vinyl. You especially want to avoid this chemical around the doll’s eyes because they can easily be degraded by coming into contact with acetone. Now is it even more clear why you shoudn’t use nail polish to attach the lashes?
So you can’t use good ol’ clear nailpolish to attach those lashes. What else might be a good adhesive? Hm…well if you want to ruin your doll you might try this:
Oh no! #3
Use super glue on your doll.
Are you ready for the scary truth? Super glue will MELT most doll eyes. That’s not something you want to happen. But maybe you are thinking you can use it elsewhere on your doll? Don’t do it! Unless you want to ruin your doll, of course. Superglue can be damaging to plastics and acrylics.
Maybe you’re thinking…I know! Hot glue!
Sorry honey, no can do! (can you tell I was an English major?)
Oh no! #4
Use hot glue on your baby doll.
Once again, you are looking at degraded, broken down, damaged plastic and vinyl.
Your husband or teenage son like to build model cars? Why not use that glue? It’s glue for plastic, after all. No! Hot rod and fighter jet plastic is hard. Baby doll vinyl and plastic is soft. So if you want to ruin your doll:
Oh no! #5
Use model glue on your reborn baby doll.
See Oh no! #4 for the reason why.
OH YES!
So what kind of adhesives should you use in the making of your reborn baby doll?
The favorite choice of glue in the reborn supplies tool kit of experienced reborners is Aleene’s Tacky Glue. This can be found at many craft stores. You can also use specialty craft glue E6000 which I would recommend if you are making a doll in the hopes of selling it as this is a higher quality glue with a very strong bond.
So there it is, 5 ways you can ruin your reborn baby doll!
Of course I hope you use this information so that you don’t have the same “oh no!” moments that others have had when working on a reborning project. It’s my hope that you DON’T ruin any dolls and that you instead create adorable, lifelike baby dolls that will bring smiles to the faces of those who hold them for many years to come, without any of these “oh no”s!
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