The four-times-great-grandmother from Kellyville was not confessing to anything sinister.

Lyn Conlon is a reborn doll artist.

"As soon as I set eyes on the exceptionally lifelike reborn dolls at the Doll, Bear & Craft Fair in Penrith five years ago, I just could not believe what I was seeing," Mrs Conlon, a long-time porcelain doll artist, told the Hills News.

"A doll that looked so much like a real baby I had to keep on touching it to make sure it was just a doll."

Soon after Mrs Conlon opened a reborn doll business with her husband, Paul, and daughter, Toni, providing other reborn artists with the right tools and equipment to pursue their craft.

And it didn't take long before the television industry came knocking on their door.

"Two of my dolls (kit names Ariella and Arieanna) played Ruby in (Channel 7's) Packed to the Rafters," Mrs Conlon said.

"Whenever you saw a sleeping Ruby, it was my reborn."

Her dolls have also appeared in Channel 7 soapie Home and Away and Nine show Rescue Special Ops, with another soon to appear in the 2011 movie release Say Nothing, starring Joel Edgerton.

Other requests have included making a "baby" which appeared to have died of cot death and memory dolls, which are made up to resemble infants who have died.

"We've got orders going all over the world," Mrs Conlon said of her reborn dolls, which are made using vinyl doll kits imported from overseas.

"I insert every hair individually with a needle and use a very thin paint to paint the veins.

"To create their form, we fill them with fine and large glass and poly beads and we make them weigh what a baby would."

But unlike porcelain dolls which are baked in a kiln, reborn dolls can be cooked in a conventional oven, resulting in a doll so life-like, you'd swear she or he was a human baby.

For all their realism, Mrs Conlon admits she "could no more paint a portrait than fly".

¦ Details: Mrs Conlon runs two-day workshops once a month at her studio, Lyn's Reborn World, Unit 13/7 Anella Avenue, Castle Hill. The next is on April 2-3. She also writes for Australian Dolls, Bears & Collectables magazine. Visit lynsrebornworld.com.au for information.