Well it is official. I am a doll collector. Or at least I have collected my first silicone baby. He was sculpted by Lorna Miller-Sands, is 106 / 350, was part of the Silicone Bitties Collection. He is 10 inches long, and is just a good handful. The box he came in made it look as if he was a couple of years old. As I opened it I kept feeling that someone should be video-taping this. Good thing no one else saw the box. It looked very much as if he had never been taken out of the box. Dolls are evidently not a good investment as a year ago he was sold on eBay for $185, and I got him in an auction for $102. There was not much action on the site so I do not know whether to crow that I have won him or just enjoy touching him. For me, it was a thrill to just know I was getting a silicone baby. The mystic has built up in the doll world about these, especially since I have been reading posts on Doll Fan. He  is tiny but that is really all I wanted to invest in learning the feel of this kind of doll. It IS realistic, and I can imagine that a baby-sized doll would feel very real. I had laid out an outfit of my smallest baby clothes but he was far tinier than anything I had. So there is no temptation to go shopping for real baby clothes for him.
I had read on the forum that silicone babies are big dirt and dust magnets. In my studio when the babies are getting their bodies there is a fine smog of poly-fill lint in the air. It was no question of leaving him in the box. This was not an investment but the way to experience and enjoy a new baby. A lady on Reborns.com had listed a real hospital baby bed (basically a clear acrylic tub) that I was considering buying. I was waiting to see how big a 10 inch baby really was. Yesterday she sold the bed to someone else. Good thing  because I really did not need it. Then I remembered I had bought an acrylic box for one of my beaded scenes. Perfect.

I hated having him on the backside of the shelves because I wanted to look at him and keep him company. When I put him on the other side of the shelf he already had playmates looking in on him.

The beaded giraffe and monkey fell against the plastic wall in their eagerness to touch him. At this point I have not given him a name, but I am open to everything.