Ian & Selena Saxton
All my babies start out as a large clump of clay,
called 'Monster Clay'.
I hand sculpt every fine detail down to tiny fingernails, facial hair, wrinkles and even slightly protruding veins and love to
capture a lifelike expression whether the baby is awake or asleep. This process takes me months to complete.
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Once I am finally happy with the full sculpt, I hand it over to Ian,
who then begins the process of hand making the mold. This too is
a very time consuming, detailed process. He has to be very particular and get it right the first time or my sculpt is ruined and
has to be redone, as the clay is soft.
When the moulds are completed and set up ready to pour,
Ian measures the silicone and we colour it to a nice skin undertone
base colour. The silicone is well mixed then goes through a degassing procedure to remove the bubbles from the silicone.
The baby is ready to be carefully poured.
We use ecoflex 20 platinum silicone,
which is a very soft but durable silicone
art
a true labour of
love
Because the silicone is a solid, we wanted to make the babies
body bend and move like a real baby. We put our heads together,
and eventually came up with a way to add a soft inner piece in the babies tummy, this also cuts down on the heaviness of the solid silicone, making the weight of the baby perfect and in
proportion to a real newborn baby.
Once the baby is poured we leave it cure for at least 6 hours
depending on the weather.
Then begins the painting precedure to bring the baby to life,
giving it all the details and creating the look of a real newborn
baby's skin - This is a true form of art.
Silicone is not easy to paint, but through a lot of trial and error,
I have developed my own silicone paints and a technique to paint
the silicone so it doesn't peal off like some.
When I am satisfied with my painting, it is sealed with a matte finish, which takes away the sticky feeling and shinny look and leaves
the skin feeling like soft REAL baby's skin.
The final step to complete the baby is to have the best
quality mohair micro rooted into the babies scalp.
I have a hairdresser do this very important detailed process,
and being a hairdresser she knows how hair actually grows.
to me this is the final touch of realism.
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AND A BABY IS BORN.
