Doll enthusiasts everywhere are looking for the next unique
accessory to add to their collections.
Donna Kohn cuddles her young
“reborn” doll, Emily, who was recently made
by hand to look and feel like a real newborn.
Photo by Tiffany Allison
Donna Kohn, owner of Donna’s Dolls, found an expensive yet
realistic addition to sell in her doll shop at Shoppes at Farmers
Hardware Emporium in Boone: “reborns.”
Reborns are unbelievably lifelike baby dolls created to look and
feel like real infants. Kohn, a mother of two, heard about this
technique while watching “Dr. Phil.” Later on in the
week, she saw a special on “20/20” about the process
of “reborning” dolls, and she thought, “I think
I’m going to give this a try.”
And she did. Kohn has sold more than 50 reborn dolls over the
past three years for more than $200 per doll. Prices vary depending
upon facial expression, amount of hair and size of body, but some
reborn dolls can cost up to $4,000, depending upon the artist.
“This is a long, time consuming process,” she said.
“It’s like creating your own babies, and they’re
good babies; you put one diaper on and you’re done.”
It takes two days for Kohn to create her reborns, with 10 of those
hours dedicated to hand-rooting human hair into the doll’s
head two strands at a time.
But before she can root the hair, she has to paint each body part
with flesh toned acrylic paint to create the appearance of skin
with hints of reds, pinks and blues to add veins, red spots and
birthmarks. Kohn also manicures each baby’s hands and feet
to add realism.
After the paint has dried, she can begin to root hair in the scalp
and eyelids.
“Using real hair for the eyelashes and scalp adds to the
realistic appeal of the baby,” she said. “Each baby
is one of a kind.”
When all the hair is set hot glue is placed inside the head to
secure the hair. She then uses a Dremel tool to hollow out the
nose and mouth. If the doll’s eyes are open, glass eyes are
inserted into the sockets.
As the head dries, Kohn sews together a cloth body and fills the
body and limbs with glass pellets and fiber fill until the doll
is a realistic weight. She attaches the limbs to the newly sewn
body.
After the glue has dried, she then fills the head with sand and
fiber fill and attaches it to the rest of the body with plastic
ties.
“I can style and comb and cut the babies’ hair,”
she said. “Then I put the head on the body, and once the
head is on the body that’s the time of birth.”
Kohn explained that she has had a lot of reactions about her new
reborn dolls. For advertising purposes, she walks around town
with one of her babies in a blanket and remarks have ranged from:
“cover that baby’s head, it’s cold outside”
to “get that doll away from me, it’s creepy.”
“A lot of people aren’t familiar with it, so they are
scared of it,” she said.
The ages of the dolls range up to about one year old, with the
lengths being between 16 and 21 inches long. Each baby is weighed,
measured and named at “birth.”
“Sometimes I don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl
until it’s all said and done,” she said. “I can
think it will be a girl the whole time I’m making it, but
if the end product looks like a boy at the end, that’s what
it is.”
Customers can send Kohn pictures of their babies and she replicate
to the picture to the best of her ability. She can even use customers’
hair in her doll making process.
Kohn, mother of two “and a half,” has eight grandchildren,
all of whom have a baby doll that looks identical to their newborn
picture.
“I figure when I’m gone, each doll will go to the grandchild
that it looks like,” she said. “I have six of my own
children, and I have a niece that we half-raised that has two,
and they are like my grandchildren, too. As my husband said, we
were the typical American family – we had two and a half
children, the half being my niece.
Kohn currently has 150-200 dolls in her shop, four of them being
reborns. She sells play dolls and doll collections from Virginia
Turner, Marie Osmond and Madame Alexander and carries a full line
of doll furniture, including cribs, carriers, high chairs, swings,
cars and books. Kohn’s line of reborn dolls is called “Donna’s
Darlings.”
Some “Donna’s Darlings” clientele are women unable
to have children of their own or who do not feel like going through
the adoption process. Others have bought them for children to
play with.
“I really hope that they go to a good home,” she said.
“After you put all these hours into a baby, you sort of get
attached to it. It’s a lot of hours you put in to making
a baby.”
Kohn has offered classes on how to make your own baby, and she
is planning on holding another one this year.
Donna Kohn is moving her shop online soon, but until that time,
special orders may be placed over the phone at (828) 963-5348.
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