Ever since their introduction in the early 1990's the high quality, super life-like dolls known as reborns have become popular all around the world. These dolls get their names because they are regular dolls completely redone to create a totally new doll that resembles a real baby. Thus, the original doll is reborn as this new creation.
The most popular beginning dolls for these unique creations are the world famous Berenguer dolls. Reborn Berenguer dolls dominate the market and represent some of the most high quality examples in the industry. Berenguer dolls have long been a name of quality in the doll business so it's no doubt why reborn artists choose to begin their work on these canvases.
For decades the Berenguer family of Spain has been making high quality dolls known throughout the world. The family's patriarch and master doll designer, Salvador Berenguer, based the detailed expressions of the doll's faces on the faces of his own children and then grandchildren. While Berenguer doll production has been moved to China, they still offer high quality dolls for both collecting and children's daily play needs.
The high quality offerings from the company are the most popular beginning canvas in the reborn world. Reborn Berenguer dolls dominate the market, as a quick search of eBay clearly shows. The auction site has become the biggest market place for these dolls, eclipsing even doll shows. Amongst the thousands of auctions on the site reborn Berenguer dolls, kits or plain dolls can all be found.
In order to create a proper reborn doll, the artist must first strip the plaything of it's factory coloring. Most dolls, even Berenguers, come with a waxy orange colored vinyl coating. Using acetone or other harsh chemicals the factory coating is stripped away. The artist then begins to apply their own paint, layer by layer, to give the reborn a more life like appearance. While doing so they can add realistic details like veins to the doll.
After baking in the new paint skin on the doll, the reborn artists add hand blown glass eyes, individually rooted hairs and many other elements which make the dolls insanely life like. Some of these dolls look so much like the real thing that you can not tell the difference between the doll or a real baby until you are right up close.
Reborn Berenguer dolls are pampered and treated like members of the family by many owners. This can cause issues as people have called the police because of "babies" being left in cars. Police have broken windows to rescue these children or pulled drivers over for not having the proper safety seating for their child.