They are tiny, perfectly formed and adorable, but the babies arriving at the Gillingham home of Sue Waters are not real - even though they look just like newborns.

The clamour to buy the babies made by the "reborn" artist at her King William Road home begins as soon as she announces their arrival on Facebook.

Mum-of-four Mrs Waters is so skilled in her art that people have mistaken her dolls for real babies.

The 55 year-old said: "I've even had one person message me asking why I was selling my own baby online."

Her creations are sought out by childless couples and even bereaved parents, but Mrs Waters said she will not create a reborn from a photo of a lost baby.

She said: "People will have an image in their minds of how their baby looked and it's very difficult to get it exactly right.

"I wouldn't want to upset anybody and to fail in doing something that I absolutely love."

After completing her job as an early-morning clinical cleaner at the Sunlight Centre, Gillingham, Mrs Waters returns home to her painstaking work creating the baby dolls.

She orders the body parts from eBay and uses layers of heat-set paint on the assembled model to create translucent, flesh colours.

Hair is carefully rooted using a needle, eyes are glued and tiny eyebrows delicately brushed on. Dolls are weighted to order, with buyers requesting their preferred baby weight.

Mrs Waters' interest in craft developed when she lived in the States for 13 years with her then husband, who was in the US Air Force.

Now remarried to Stuart and living in Gillingham, it is her dream to one day have her own business premises where she can put the dolls on display.

They cost between £100 to £200, but as soon as one is ready the clamour to own it begins and Mrs Waters has to say her farewells.

She said: "They are my babies and I love creating them from start to finish and sometimes it's difficult to see them go."