UK mum makes eerily lifelike dolls for childless people all over the world
One mother-of-three, real, human children of her own spends her time creating life-like silicone babies from scratch for up to £4,000 per doll.
Some people have called her creations "scary", but this Welsh mum dedicates her time crafting eerily fully dressed and accessorised dolls. “Doll artist” Denise Hall is a 37-year-old from Monmouth, who makes her living by creating and selling her dolls to customers all over the globe.
Although most of her customers are collectors, some buyers these dolls as if they were their own flesh and blood. She has customers with special needs who love to collect and treat these dolls as their own children, as many of them are unable to have their own. Denise has had her fair share of people telling her that her dolls are "weird" or "scary", but that does not deter her. She thinks these are just beautiful pieces of artwork that are fun to collect and should be admired.
Some of her customers love these dolls as if these silicone models were their own flesh and blood (Mediadrumimages/ Denise Hall)"I have some customers who will repeatedly buy my dolls because they really adore the artwork, and they love collecting the dolls," Denise said.
Denise sometimes creates direct replicas of customers own babies (Mediadrumimages/ Denise Hall)She added: "I recently sold a silicone doll to a customer in the USA who paid £5,000 for it and went shopping to buy lots of expensive accessories like clothes, a pram, and a baby cot for the doll. Some of my customers love these dolls to the extent that they sleep with the dolls on their bed every night.”
Silicone-reborn dolls are curated to resemble a life-like infant or baby (Mediadrumimages/ Denise Hall)She sometimes has to deal with some customers who ask her to give her dolls for free or make high-end dolls worth thousands of pounds for not even half the price. Silicone-reborn dolls are made specifically to resemble a life-like infant. The first such dolls were created in the United States around the 1990s, and the first reborn doll sold online was in 2002 on eBay.
The demand for these eerily life-like dolls is global (Mediadrumimages/ Denise Hall)Since the online market has grown hugely. People from Manchester to Sydney, the USA and Tokyo spend up to £4000 on a doll and accessories, which can take Denise up to ten days to perfect. There is a huge online community of collectors and manufacturers on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and, of course, online marketplaces like eBay and Etsy Denise added: "It's lovely when customers who cannot have children enjoy treat my dolls as their own offspring & witness the happiness it brings to them."
The Welsh mum spends her time creating life-like silicone babies from scratch for up to £4,000 (Mediadrumimages/ Denise Hall)Denise first became interested in the dolls, known as reborn dolls or simply "re-borns", when she was browsing Etsy back in 2008. She came across these life-like dolls and was blown away by how realistic they were. She wanted to create something similar, so she started sculpting her own little dolls of silicone.
She sometimes customises these dolls for people who request them. She can sculpt a doll from a baby picture, personalising it to a customer's specifications and making it look like their own child.
Online trolls are calling her creations “scary” (Mediadrumimages/ Denise Hall)She added: "To create a doll, I first sculpt the baby mould out of clay by hand. This process alone takes about two weeks or more. Then I create a mixture of silicone and dragon for the skin and pour it over the clay mould. Once the mixture sets over the mould, I break and get rid of the clay inside and am left with the flexible silicone sculpture, which I start to paint over. Bringing a silicon baby to life takes up to several weeks of my time."
Throughout the year, Denise's sales fluctuate. She is sometimes busy creating several dolls at a time, and at other times, she has no orders and is free to work on other projects. She is not just a sculptor but also a collector of dolls. The Welsh mother added: "I collect limited edition Disney dolls. I am Disney princess obsessed and have spent thousands on collecting these dolls. I have over 40 Disney princess limited edition dolls in my own personal doll collection."
(Mediadrumimages/ Denise Hall)Talking about her family, she said: "My three children are all teenagers now, and although I was happily married to my husband from the age of 18 years, he has not been around for almost two years now, and so I have been caring for them all on my own. So, I keep myself busy with work. I love creating my artwork, and the job allows me to continue to raise my children through these very difficult times I am going through."
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