The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Virginia)
May 6, 2008 Tuesday

Teenager creates lifelike baby dolls with loving care: Colonial Forge
High junior Rita Artinian designs, makes and paints realistic baby
dolls

by Rebecca J. Barnabi, The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.

May 6–Each blush of the cheek, each toenail and each lip are lovingly
painted.

Every strand of hair is placed just so and every baby is sent out into
the world.

So realistic are the dolls Colonial Forge High School junior Rita
Artinian creates that from a distance they could be mistaken for live,
breathing babies.

The babies in Rita’s "Reborn Nursery" reflect the love, care and
attention to detail Rita puts into making each one.

"I try to make them as realistic as possible," said Rita, 17, who was
born in Springfield, but has lived in Stafford County most of her
life.

Having always been interested in artistic endeavors, she began making
dolls a year and a half ago. According to her father, Harry Artinian,
a computer programmer, Rita began painting dolls’ faces as a way to
practice for a possible career someday as a film makeup artist.

"Rita [has been] an artist since she was a child," her father said. "A
studio artist and also a performing artist."

She began researching the Internet for materials: baby limbs, clothes,
hair, and paint products. She said each doll costs about $50 to make,
but hours and hours of labor. She can make one doll in about two
weeks.

She sews mohair into each baby’s head from the inside out so that it
can be brushed and handled. This task alone requires seven hours.

After meticulously painting each toenail, fingernail, lip, face, and
also sometimes veins on the hands and wrinkles on the legs, Rita
places each doll in the oven. This unmotherly action sets the makeup
so that it will never rub or chip off.

Some dolls come with a magnetic pacifier that attaches to a magnet
inside the doll’s mouth. Blankets are hand-sewn by Rita’s grandmother.

Selling on eBay for $100 to $200 each, Rita’s dolls are not meant as
toys for children, but items for a collector. Her last doll sold for
$300.

Her father said that at a festival in Alexandria last summer, a doctor
told Rita he would hire her if she was 18 to make prosthetic limbs for
people.

"That is also a career she can get into," said Harry Artinian.

So far Rita makes mostly Caucasian dolls, but she hopes to start
making ethnic dolls.

Rita’s father was born in Armenia and her mother, Maral, was born in
Lebanon.

After putting so much time into creating each doll, Rita finds it
difficult to sell them. The only doll she keeps for herself is the
very first one she made: a preemie girl.

Rita is considering attending the University of Mary Washington, where
her brother is a student. She would like to major in drama or art.

But she plans to continue making her dolls.

"I enjoy making them and it gives me something productive to do," said
Rita. "We’ll see what will happen in the future."

For more information, visit RitaArt.com.