Custom-Eye Tutorials

Wow!! These eyes look awesome!! I think I am starting to like nailpolish!! I wonder if gletter and or shiny wrapping paper would give me the same effect in your hand made eyes!! But very well done!!

 

Thought I'd share pics of these eyes I made this afternoon using this method - lilac pearl 16mm eyes.





It took me about an hour to make them, including drying time. 4 different shades of nail varnish plus a little iridescent medium. The pupils are Rimmel shade 730 "Silver Bullet", light silvery mottling is windsor & Newton Iridescent Medium, the dark purple rim is Rimmel shade 214 "Purple Rain", then a coat of 2true Glossywear shade 15 then finished with two coats over the back of Claire's Accessories nail polish shade B90 whilst the "Purple Rain" was still slightly damp.

Not bad for a first try. I've ordered six pairs of the PupaParadise D.Eye.Y blanks so I can play around some more, and I'll post pics when I've got some more pairs done.

 

Just don't use the nail varnish on those... I hear they cloud up really bad.

 

These are the D.Eye.Y. ones; I happened to have a pair kicking around that I hadn't used yet. I think you've misunderstood what people have said upthread.

The final step in the tutorial instructions after snapping the irises into the base is to paint a layer of clear polish over the lens then wipe it off - basically using the polish as a solvent-based cleaner instead of letting it dry; however this interacts with the acrylic used by PupaParadise and eats into the surface layer, causing clouding. I prefer to use purpose-made solvent cleansers however for the final polish; I gave these a final swipe with white spirit then buffed them dry which didn't affect the acrylic or cloud it.

It really helps to read tutorials like this thoroughly and understand the chemistry going on rather than read other peoples' comments, misunderstand them and just think "oh, nail polish is bad". You can use nail polish to create the coloured iris design just fine - you just can't use clear polish as your final cleaning solvent to shine up the lens afterwards.

 

Arkady~ Wow. Excuse me.

 

Thanks for the tutorial, I can't wait to give it a go!

 

Thank you very much for this tutorial. Greatly appreciated :-)

 

just made these today

I figured I'd share cus I used a very non semi-permanent way to put paper on the back of the eye chip.

I used my sticker maker! I have one of the little Xyron sticker makers... I drilled holes in the D.I.Y. base (of to the side since the pupil is a tiny dome inside) so the chips can come back out if I want. Drew an eye, stuck it (as a little square) face down in the sticker maker (so the stickum was on the colored side) and placed the blank eye chip on them once I'd made them into stickers. It works amazingly well and should you make a mistake or decide later that they suck... you just peal the paper off, and rub the remaining sticky off.

Now you do REALLY have to try hard to get the sticker in perfect connection with the chip, lots of rubbing with your thumb or thumbnail. But yea. It's a nice way to go if you don't wanna chance ruining your eyes.

 

They look awesome, and you are wonderfully creative :-)
I do have some 16mm Do it yourself eyes that I purchased on ebay. I haven't done anything with them yet. Due really, to not having the confidence - the inhibition of - what if I ruin them - epic failure comes to mind
Love your tutorial and pics, you have given me the boost I needed :-)

 

Thank you. I've been searching for this. Will make a pair tonight

 

When resizing, how do you get the image to keep the details of the iris? Mine keep blurring, even on the simple gradient ones.

 

That depends on the program and settings you're using. I do most my resizing of anything in MS paint because it never does anything funky >.> it's not the prettiest or the coolest but it works for me...

What color is your Isabela going to be?

 

i use photoshop tp make them but resize them in my word document. I have mad love for MS Paint but i never do resizing with it if i can help it. Mine makes everything way pixelated.
My Isabella is gonna be whiteskin with blue blushing (I know they don't have elf ears but i forgot to chane them on the dollmaker and havet gotten around to fixing it)

 

Paint will pixelate them a bit... But thats never been so bad that it was realy noticable to me... All the pics in my sig are resized in paint. Try resizing them in photoshop. No mater what microsoft tells you, word is not an image program. It will never be as good at doing image stuff as photoshop. Photoshop isn't the easiest program to resize in (hence why I do it in paint) but it's going to do a better job than word on most stuff.

At least that's my experience

^_^ Yea, I figured that was kinda what was going on. I have a light blue RS bei, it's a really fun size. Maybe I'll see you in their thread later ^_^

 

GIMP is a good, free alternative to Photoshop - it can handle .psd files too, and you can use PS brushes with it.

 

This is EXACTLY what I needed to know--will use Mod-Podge to fix "eyechips" to eyes tonight (right before I go to bed, so I won't be tempted to mess with them before they dry!)

 

Has anyone tried doing this with eyes from mimiwoo?
I just wanted to know if I can pop out the lenses of those eyes before I buy some.

 

When polishing the lens do you apply the clear coat and then wipe immediately? What cloth did you use to
polish it? This is great, thank you for posting.

 

Wow! Amazing, thank you :-D

 

Thanks this thread is really helpful.

 

Thank you very much! This is a great tutorial!

 

oh, really nice idea. I'll have it in mind. thanks

 

One of my dolls got a bigger size of eyes...and I tried this tutorial on the old ones. (I don't need them anymore so I thought it wouldn't be that bad if i do something wrong...)
First try with some acrylic colors I had, not the best ones...but I still like them somehow.
(They are 14 mm if I'm right)





Ill show better pictures when I got some...

And some blank ones are on the way.

 

Thank you very much for tutorial. It is cool, but seem so hard (((

 

I've been wondering has anyone tried using clear uv resin instead of the eye chips?

 

i am doll eyes maker, it is total different with our process , the color will be total different looks,
this is really simple and quickly , and easy to learn ,thanks ,

 

Oh and for those looking for realistic eyes, serenade doll sells small iris blanks (sadly only available in 14mm).

 

This is pretty interesting- thanks for posting it!

 

good to see the photo