By Pam North
A love of beautiful things has been a lifelong theme for Sarah Korstange, and within that scope is dolls. In addition to collecting American Girl dolls when she was younger, she also had an early artistic passion for creating hairstyles for both dolls and humans. This led her to attend beauty school. After working in a salon for many years, she switched to being a stay-at-home mom to her young son and daughter. When her daughter later became obsessed with reborn dolls — and after buying two as birthday and Christmas presents — Korstange decided to try making them herself.
The journey began with a reborn kit from Bountiful Baby. “I was good at creating skin tones because of my makeup background,” she said. “I knew the color wheel very well from coloring hair and doing makeup; that helped in painting and duplicating realistic skin, and of course, I knew hair. After much trial and error, I eventually started to get good at all of it. Almost before I realized it, I had made a toddler for my daughter and had started an Instagram account!”
Aside from her beauty school training, Korstange is self-taught — researching on YouTube and learning from other reborners who willingly share their ideas and creative tips. She now specializes in reborn toddlers and works only on vinyl dolls.
Over the vinyl foundation, Korstange applies thin layers of heat-set paint. The parts go in her Nuwave oven after every layer or two. To create a realistic appearance, the layers of paint are accented with veining and mottling, as well as freckles and beauty marks. Mohair, which is relatively soft, is added for short hairstyles; for toddlers with longer locks, human hair is used. Hair is rooted with a small-gauge felting needle in one- or two-strand increments — a tedious process Korstange actually loves. It can take 40 to 50 hours to create each doll.
Korstange takes many custom orders from people whose children are deceased. Using photos, she makes the dolls resemble the lost loved ones and often dresses them in clothing from those children. “One has to have patience to create these dolls,” Korstange explained. “They are extremely time-consuming and very detailed, and they are definitely a labor of love. Being able to create portrait dolls for my customers is a joy because I can help to ease people’s grief when they receive one of my dolls. Many people post videos on YouTube of when they receive one of my dolls, and I love to watch them. I also create dolls for women who were never able to have children of their own. I suppose creating these dolls fulfills something in myself, too, since I wasn’t able to have as many children as I had wanted.” For dolls that aren’t custom orders, the artist follows her imagination and creates with latitude.
When she began making dolls, Korstange worked from her dining room table. “It was always funny when people would walk in and see toddler heads and limbs all over the table,” she recalled. “I was always explaining about using my dining room as my workspace. After about two years of my creating reborns, we purchased a new home, which has an office right off the living room, so now I have my own workspace. I have dolls of my own placed around the room and a crib where I put completed dolls while they are waiting to be shipped. There is a huge table for all of my paints and my Nuwave oven. I named my business after my daughter, Amelia Marie, and when she was little, we called her Mia Maria. Since she is the reason I began creating these dolls, I figured it was appropriate to name my business after her.”
Korstange’s inspiration often comes from looking at pictures online, but she also credits the enthusiastic support of her husband, Chris, and her two children, Mia and Jake, for her success. “My family inspires me,” she said, “and I want my kids to see their mom succeed in her passion. I always want them to know you can do anything you put your mind toward achieving. I will keep creating these reborn toddlers until I can’t physically do it anymore. I have a true love for this art, and I work every day to improve my skills.”
Through Instagram, Facebook, and Etsy, Korstange has sold hundreds of dolls worldwide. “I do mostly custom work, and since 2016, I’ve usually been booked out about three months at a time. I absolutely love my customers and am forever grateful to them. Sometimes I want to pinch myself to see if this is even real! After loving dolls my whole life, being able to do this as full-time work is a dream come true, and none of it would be possible without the customers who support me.”
Korstange believes the future of artist-made collectibles is bright. “I think that handmade art always will be sought after by people who appreciate it. There are companies that try to sell reborn dolls that supposedly are handmade but are actually factory-made; unfortunately, I see people buying these because of the lower cost, but you can never truly replicate handmade. I’m definitely a positive kind of person who has such a love and passion for art and handmade dolls that I’d like to think there always will be others who share that appreciation.”
Mia Maria’s Nursery
instagram.com/mia_marias_nursery
