Cynthia Heaton of
Bella Repaints
by Lisa A. Lawrence

Cindy's first job was in real estate. She then worked for a Veterinarian for three years.  "That was a very fun job and I made many friends because it was a small personnel clinic." Cindy recalls, "Sometimes animals are easier to work with than people!  They certainly forgive you faster, LOL!  After that I worked at a Periodontist office.  Not a place people want to go to!  Being a compassionate person, I fit right in with our patients and was good at reassuring them that everything would be ok."

Cindy has always had a love affair with dolls. "My closet was packed to the brim with Barbies® when I was young" She recalls, "My first 'adult' doll was Gene®.  I broke down and bought an Unforgettable Gene when I saw her in a magazine ad.  Like everyone else, I was hooked when I opened that box!"
 

Cindy discovered repaints on eBay®.  "I was amazed at the work of K. Rayland, Viktoria La Paz and Laurie Leigh, all of whom are very nice and have given me detailed instructions at various points."  She acknowledges, "Debbie Sprouse even sent me instructions on how to perm.  If it hadn’t been for them, my learning process would have been much more frustrating."
 

While Cindy is very open to doing collaborations with other doll artists, so far she has only worked with her mother.  "She is a great seamstress!" Cindy exclaims, "She saw how much fun I was having with my painting and decided to use her special talent with dolls too.  We have created a gypsy and a roaring 20’s doll that was featured in Viktoria’s Repaint Gallery.  I do the repainting and usually commission the jewelry (MiniMode® is my absolute favorite and for rhinestones, Facets by Marcia® is the best!)  Luckily my mom and I live quite close and we go shopping for the material together."

Cindy is interested in repainting various dolls.  "The challenge of a new doll is great." She asserts, "I just recently painted my first Mei Li® and I just love her sculpt!" 

Cindy also takes commissions.  "It’s nice to have fresh ideas from customers." She notes, "They ask for things that I never would have thought of and it’s a great learning and mind broadening experience for me.  Right now, I have over 20 people on my waiting list and will not be accepting any more commissions until 2004.  Thankfully everyone has been very kind about the changes in my life and the wait for their dolls."

Cindy shares her website, www.bellarepaints.com, with her mom.  Most of her repaint earnings go back into dolls with a little left over for some fun things for her family.

Asked if she's interested in having a more commercial type of business, Cindy responds, "I wouldn’t mind doing something like that, but I know that right now wouldn’t be good with an infant and a demanding 3 year old.  I don’t do well under pressure.  I love that Tonner is using people from this industry in his work now. It shows that he is watching and learning from the collectors."

 

 

Cindy is basically a self-taught artist, noticing a modicum of talent as early as age 5!  "The first time I can remember really taking it seriously and realizing that I was a little more talented than my brother and sister was when, at 5 years old, I drew a picture of a Great Dane.  I always took classes in high school, but my teacher never really taught anything.  He just made sure we handed in projects and pretty much let us experiment on our own.  Only if we had questions would he  help."

 

 

Cindy finds inspiration for her faces and hairdos everywhere!  "From books, movies, magazine, the grocery store!" she exclaims, "I have a large collection of modern magazines and some photography books of Hollywood going back to the 1920’s." While Cindy is inspired by various movies, she doesn't do "character repaints."  Cindy knows if she did this, she'd want to replicate the movies' outfits also.  Cindy doesn't sew! 

 

 

She does, however, take hairdos, mouth shapes, makeup colors and sometimes whole faces from various actresses.  When repainting a celebrity, Cindy will spend a few days gathering and studying photographs until she chooses the best ones.  Then she'll draw the face on the blank doll.  Otherwise, Cindy does not draw out her dolls. "I like to get right to work." she notes, "I tend to like going with the flow of my girls and watching their personalities emerge.  Sometimes when I start, I want a blue eyed doll but, halfway through the process, decide she is most definitely going to be brown eyed.  It’s nice not to have to stick with your original plan and have some freedom."

 

The time it takes Cindy to complete a repaint depends on what she wants to accomplish. "If I have to root in several different hair colors," she notes, "it could take me a few months to get it how I pictured it, and then I still have to repaint and do the hairdo.  Generally a repaint takes me about 1 week. Since the birth of my second son it’s much harder to find extra time and has been taking 2-3 weeks for me to complete a doll."

 

"I love painting the lips and getting the eyes to 'pop'!  Sometimes I really get into the photography; I really like it when they look like pictures of real people!  My outfits are a mix of some factory outfits and some custom ones.  I like to show the dolls in something fancy, but I also like when I can use a factory outfit so that people can see that you don’t have to buy a special fashion for the repaint."  Hairstyling, however, remains her least favorite part of the process.

 

 

 

"I have not yet tried a male doll because I’m afraid I’ve been painting and drawing women so long that the men would come out looking like they were in drag!  I am really considering trying something on the new Tonner male, Matt O'Neill®, because he has real hair!  I have no desire to paint the hair on Trent®."

Cindy's house has a very open floor plan, so that her "office" is a place in which her kids can be "happily playing in the same room while I take care of e-mails and spreadsheets." she states, "It’s working out perfectly."  She does note however, that she'd "like to be producing more dolls and have a bit more time to work on them, as it’s very relaxing for me.  I lose myself in my painting (whether it be dolls or working on the walls in my home) and often look up and find that hours have gone by.  I don’t know how big I’d like this business to be since I have such little children right now and they have to come first.  I can make enough to buy them all kinds of “stuff”, but in the end children just want the love of their parents."

All of Cindy's dolls come with Certificates of Authenticity that show pictures of the doll, the name, Cindy's signature and the date.  She also signs, dates and "names" each doll on their bum!

Asked about her marketing strategies, Cindy notes, "I usually just use eBay for advertising.  The only board I regularly post on is Prego® and many of my customers come from there.  When most people ask for commission work they have a face in mind.  Some people want me to follow their instructions exactly and others give a vague impression and let me run with it.  Either way is fine with me.  I like hearing ideas from other people because it makes me paint with colors and in ways that I’m not used to.  With every challenge, I learn a little bit more.  I stay in close contact while I am working on a commissioned doll. I send pictures so that we stay on course.  I do periodically e-mail back and forth, but as of late my e-mails haven’t been as plentiful as they used to be."

Cindy works about 2 hours a day on her repaint business but this doesn't always include painting.  "I may be doing inventory and finding the best prices for more dolls or just studying the boards and groups to find out what people are talking about." Cindy states, "Sometimes I'm taking pictures, setting up an auction or sales page or updating my web site. There is a lot more than painting involved in doing all this.   I wouldn’t call it all work, as this is certainly more of a hobby for me.  I wish I could attend conventions but that's just not possible right now."

Despite Cindy's travel plans, she claims not to be able to see beyond each day.  When asked where she sees herself in 10 years, she shrieks, "Eeeek!  I really don’t see past tomorrow!  Not the best answer I know, but really... I live in the today.  I have goals but right now they mostly revolve around raising my kids to be responsible, compassionate adults with common sense  who know how to achieve their goals. (Here's a hint Cindy.... FEED them!)  Oh, and getting my house painted the way I envision it!  I’m very particular and a bit of a perfectionist so that's no easy task!"