Stacy (19) from
Belgium (see pic on left), poses with Stefy, her life-like "Reborn Baby" doll, in front of Belgian artist Beatrice Van Landeghem's workshop, called "La nurserie des Tis Lous De Bea", in La Louviere, southern Belgium. "Reborn Babies" are disturbingly life-like baby dolls carefully crafted in vinyl, which have become swiftly popular mainly with collectors, but also with grieving parents and nostalgic grandparents. The dolls are created from a kit composed with the limbs and head made from vinyl and a trunk made from fabric which are painted several times to create the skin tone of newborn babies, their natural-looking hair and eyelashes, and are weighed to make them feel as heavy as human babies when carried. The cost of a "Reborn Baby" varies between hundreds to thousands of euros and takes around 25 hours to be assembled together depending on the level of precision requested by people who "adopt" the dolls.
Artist Landeghem uses a needle to attach hair to the head of one of her dolls.
Van Landeghem paints the nails on Loan, one of her "Reborn Baby" dolls.
Photos: Reuters/Yves Herman
Stacy (19) from
Belgium (see pic on left), poses with Stefy, her life-like "Reborn Baby" doll, in front of Belgian artist Beatrice Van Landeghem's workshop, called "La nurserie des Tis Lous De Bea", in La Louviere, southern Belgium. "Reborn Babies" are disturbingly life-like baby dolls carefully crafted in vinyl, which have become swiftly popular mainly with collectors, but also with grieving parents and nostalgic grandparents. The dolls are created from a kit composed with the limbs and head made from vinyl and a trunk made from fabric which are painted several times to create the skin tone of newborn babies, their natural-looking hair and eyelashes, and are weighed to make them feel as heavy as human babies when carried. The cost of a "Reborn Baby" varies between hundreds to thousands of euros and takes around 25 hours to be assembled together depending on the level of precision requested by people who "adopt" the dolls.
