Sculptor makes dolls of babies that died

Cathy Resmer created an audio slideshow about sculptor Jennifer Stocks-Dearborn's "memorial dolls."

It features Jennifer Stocks-Dearborn, a Jefforsonville sculptor who makes realistic clay babies for people whose infants have died. Her own daughter died of SIDS in 2000. Leon Thompson wrote a story about her for this week's paper, but I thought we could do more with the images of the dolls. Stocks-Dearborn refers to them as "creepy, naked babies," and they are indeed creepy. And also beautiful. And sad.

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Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Anonymous

I make these life size reborns and for me it’s just a hobby!
Christians Mommy

Having lost my son just 2 days before his scheduled c-section, I think these are wonderful. My son was healthy as could be, 19 in long and 6lbs 5.6oz. My life changed on 10/19/10 when I found out my son’s heart had stopped. I had to have a c-section to my stillborn boy who was prefect in every way and fully matured and healthy… the only thing wrong: the umbilical cord had wrapped around his neck 4 times, suffocating him :(

I have nothing to remember my son by but a few pictures, a lock of his hair, a blanket, and a headstone. So I ordered one of these dolls as one more thing to help comfort me of the loss of my DS & first born child that I can not bring back, who I will not be able to hold in my arms until we meet again someday.

So, until you have been through a loss such as this, don’t say how “creepy” the dolls are, or how people who by them are “sick” or “ditzy”. Jennifer’s dolls are 5″-6″ big, not one of the life size ones that people treat like real babies. She’s doing a wonderful thing bringing comfort to so many who have lost, and at the same time, helping her own grieving process.

Until you’ve been through this unimaginable pain, you wouldn’t understand, just as I wouldn’t have prior to October. I don’t expect you to. But don’t put down people for buying them or making them when you know the story behind them and that they’re helping people cope and grieve… it’s just NOT right!

People are so judgmental nowadays, at least my son taught me what really matters in this life, I’ve never felt such pain, no parent should have to go through the loss of a child :(
Anonymous

i have one and i love it because i cant have kids sooo
pimpbot23

As a former practitioner in the medical field who has seen more than my share of preemies (real ones), I am unavoidably creeped out by these things, not to mention the people who buy them. I’ve read the other discussions about people having their cars busted into by cops who thought that their little surrogates were real babies and wondered how the hell they could not know that somebody would try and break in and ‘save’ the little human larva in peril. But I suppose if these women were crazy enough to think these rubber ringers were cute, they would be ditzy enough to leave them on the seat. Just as well they DON’T have any real ones ( I hope ).

On the other hand, think about how useful an ultra-realistic ‘reborn’ could be as a social engineering tool. How many interesting ‘experiments’ could we invent where a stiff preemie, perhaps with a little blue rouge, could trigger a reaction in the already borderline hysterical? I may be sick, but I didn’t spend hours and hours in my den perfecting the art of dead baby ‘reborning’ as a home-based business. I’m just encouraging others to use their imaginations in developing creative alternative uses for little horrors that already exist. They’re just dolls, even though a step or two away from taxidermy.
Anonymous

Some of them certainly look life-sized at the end of slideshow. Either way, it’s still creepy and sad…
Anonymous

If you watched the slideshow, you would see that the dolls she makes are small enough to fit in the palm of one’s hand. They are not life-sized “reborn” dolls like the ones you seem to be referring to.
Anonymous

Okay. While I can see how this could be slightly “creepy”, if you’ve ever had the misfortune of losing your baby, say he was stillborn, you don’t get a birth certificate, let alone a ceremony commemorating the life that was lost. You don’t get anything to help with closure. I say, if this helps someone who has been through a trauma, then who the hell are you to call that “creepy”?