Handmade monster babies and the people who love them
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge, Shutterstock When Arend Smith first learned about the reborn doll" community, he was an investment banker doing fantasy sculptures on the side; after teaching himself to work with Super Sculpey, oven-bake clay, and wire armatures, he quickly became hooked. Soon, his talent began to attract collectors interested in masks, statues, and garage kits. When a client asked him to make a vampire baby, Smith was drawn into a new subculture that would later influence his decision to pursue fantasy art full-time.
I came up with a character that was loosely based on ... Bram Stoker's Dracula, which is one of my favorite vampire designs ever - the bat form that [Dracula] takes in that movie," Smith recalls of his first reborn doll. The reborn community ... was...