Reborn Artist Cherry MacDonald

Our Interview With Reborn Artist Cherry MacDonald of Baby Art Originals

reborn dolls

Hello Kim and thanks for this opportunity as it is very exciting indeed

How long have you been reborning?

I have been reborning for 4 years now and have learnt so much from groups such as yours. It is a very rewarding craft and one that I can do when I feel like it or when time allows. You see I have been raising my granddaughter for 6 years now and quite a few things have changed as I am sure you can imagine. But she is worth every minute and I adore her so much.

What made you interested in the art at first? I had been making Porcelain Dolls for around 14 years and teaching in my home studio. I also Judged doll competitions around the country and was an avid competitor winning more than 85 trophy’s for best professional and best dolls of the show. This was how I learnt to become a better doll maker thus allowing me to travel to out of the way places around Australia to teach those who found it extremely difficult to get products and also information. I was also invited to write about all aspects of doll making for The Australian Dolls and Bears.

Then when I started to raise my little grand-daughter free time became a lot less so I was approached by Reborn Artist and shown these gorgeous baby’s and guess what I was not only hooked I instantly realised that I could still make baby’s but without having to clean porcelain and fire up a kiln for 14 hours……..so that was when I changed over to reborning.

reborn dolls

What is your favourite aspect of reborning ? My absolute favourite part of reborning a baby is the painting and that was my forte with porcelain dolls so I guess it was a given that it would flow onto reborns.

Where do you usually sell your dolls? I only sell my dolls on EBay as I can do them at a speed that works for me with no pressure. As I have said my top priority is for my beautiful Michaela.

Any tips for beginner artists? I think the best tip I could offer a beginner is join a forum and ask as many questions you can. Although you do not have to reborn a certain way knowledge is a great thing and you should always at least try out new things…..there are a lot of very clever ladies out there.

reborn dolls

Any memorable/funny stories from customers or personal experience with your dolls? Actually there have been quite a few and this is the last one from a lovely lady who is temporarily living in Qatar……although for her it was quite scary it was also funny to see these Arabic men not quite convinced this was not a real baby.

Dear Cherry I have to say, we did have some stir-up at the customs counter. Although I did not have to pay anything, they wanted me to open up the box. I told the man that it was a doll but he insisted to open box. I told him he is welcome to open it. (Please keep in mind that these are Arab people).

Carefully he started looking inside the box and when he lifted the blanket and saw her face, he startled and his eyes got really big. "What is this?" he said. "A baby doll" I said "Let me take her out for you." I took her carefully out with her blanket and put her on the counter. He looked at her, his eyes were very big.

He slowly he touched her face. He turned around and said something in Arabic. The next moment a whole bunch of Arab men from customs were gathering around is. They looked at Sweet Peace while keep on talking in Arabic with each other, very worried.

I started to think they are not going to let me take her. Two more of them touched her face and hair. Then they made me take of her clothes. They pressed on the cloth body and asked what's inside. I said it's the soft stuff they put in pillows. (Arab people are not very good with English; in fact most of them can't speak English). He asked me if she had any electronics inside and I said no, only the magnet and showed him how it worked. It seemed that they were satisfied that it wasn't a real baby. I dressed her, wrap her in her blanket and hold her in my arms. One more came to touch her and asked what her name is. I said Sweet Peace, and he said "Beautiful baby".

When we left they all said “goodbye” to Sweet Peace with big smiles, surprise and amazement on their faces. Sweet Peace did indeed make grand entrance into Qatar.

Thank you again for such a lovely baby. May God bless you always.