Modification Opening Eyes: Widening Sleeping or Dreaming Eyes

I've just spent the weekend opening the eyes of a Fairyland Pukifee sleeping head, so that she has dreaming eyes. It was really difficult as there were no eye sockets. I used a beveler on a dremel to create eye sockets. It took ages as there was almost 1cm of resin to get through, on such a tiny little head!!! (A complete pukifee is about 15cm tall, for those not familiar with them!!) I found the little 8mm beveller at a local DIY store. I used a very tiny drill to make the original hole in the eye, and then very slowly extended it using the tiny drill. I didn't actually do much of it by hand. I've never done a mod before, but just thought it through and did it slowly. This is what I ended up with:

I've since done a bit more smoothing of the edges and given her a face-up. I'm just waiting for her eye lashes to arrive!!
I have to say that if I can do it, anyone can have a go!!!

 

When modding the eyes open, doesn't the eyelid crease go away? Because you are cutting it out? How do you make that again? Do you cut a small line above the eye?

 

I also wonder about the eyelids :s

And moonbeam, that looks pretty nice! I love dreaming eyes...I dream of a Shushu head with narrow asian-ish eyes *faints*

 

Err. Just found this on the last page. I must have missed it. Has anyone tried this?

 

All this made perfect sense to me and I can see myself following these directions.
I could swear tho that I've seen someone post that an Xacto knife cuts through resin like the "hot knife through butter"

I also like the idea of trying out the jewelry tools, perhaps starting with the 000 blade as mentioned earlier. Then switching to the Xacto.

I would like to do this myself but have to work up the nerve first. I will be ordering sleeping heads with my dolls this year.

 

What's the difference between an Eye Beveler and an Eye Sizer? Which would I want to buy?

 

A beveler is a little round ball of sanding goodness that will give you eye wells if your head is filled in.

a sizer is a smooth round wooden ball on one end of a stick. Dreadfully bad at getting resin out XD

 

I'm going to get a dremel for my eye opening project. Where can I get a beveler to attach to my dremel? I see the above posts about dollmore, but is it supposed to fit in a dremel or one of their 'holders'? I don't know a lot about powertools. Aren't bits a standard size? I looked at walmart in hardware and they didn't have a beveler like attachment I could use. They had a little ball tip but it was very very tiny. Like for engraving or something.

 

The beveller is used to widen (make bigger) eye-wells, while the sizer is to make
sure your wells are a perfect size (and round), but it is mainly used for (master)
clay sculpts, before they are baked/cast. if you want to make your doll’s eye-wells
bigger (assuming an already cast head’s eye-wells), then you probably want a beveller,
unless you are actually sculpting your own head out of clay, then you'd want the sizer. ^ ^

Hope that helps!

- Enzyme ^.^

 

Dunno if this will help, but I use a bead reamer to open or widen the dolls I've modded. They come in different forms and length and found they were really great for opening/shaping up smaller eyes (I usually prefer the tapered cone shape since it more versital). Doing it this way is good if you want to take more time with the shaping of the eye or if you're were wanting to just open them a touch more or so. If I know I want dramatic opening and plan to work faster, I'd go with what others say and use a dremel.

 

Eye bevellers as they're talked about here are hand-held. So I don't think you can get them as attachments for dremels? And you really don't need a dremel to open eyes. I just used an Exacto/craft knife, some sandpaper, and a pencil to mark the how far the eyes should be opened. That's really all you need, unless the head in your possession has no eye wells, in which case you probably want a beveller. It's a bit slower work, but easier to make sure you haven't over-cut. Also, dramatically cheaper.

 

Ok, I just finished opening up eyes on a head that had no eye wells at all, and I cannot imagine using a hand-held beveller for it.. It took hours with the dremel.
You can get them from Dollmore as attachments for Dremels ( http://www.dollmore.net/shop/step1.php?number=6968 16mm, though they sell other sizes).

And just a correction: It is not a sandpaper ball, it's a grinding stone, just like the other shaped ones that will come with a standard dremel set. And if you have no eyewells, it's absolutely essential.
If you've got eyewells, then you don't really need to worry about it.

 

I dunno if someone's already posted this...
and I have no clue about customizing (haven't even got a doll yet)
But i found a video that might be helpful...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G4Bg0qP9vo
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHYZ0vATMqw&NR=1
and part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOE9U51UrL4&feature=related

Hope this helps!!

 

DraloreShimare: I guess I should've explained better, it's like a drill bit attachment thing; that is the one DM. It says it's for a dremel or a metal holder. Like this. The face I have doesnt' have eye wells. Dx

EDIT:

PersephonesKiss: Ohh! That's what I was talking about.

On the dremel website they've got this. But it's not big enough.

So the one on dollmore works? And it won't mess up the dremel? I guess I need to join/start a dollmore group order. D:

 

Oh, those. Dur dur, on my part. Sorry. :3;;;

 

It's just a standard sized bit, so it won't mess up the dremel.

You're going to want to use something else (my dremel came with this so I used that, but I'd recommend this one because of the smooth tip) if you've got a lot of resin to take out (IE: No hint of eye-wells at all) just to put a dent in what's there, and then using the beveller from Dollmore to smooth it out and give you a nice round socket when you're done.

 

You can use the hand-held (with wooden handle) eye bevellers in a dremel, you just need to take the "business end" out of the handle.

 

So i have a question...sorry for bumping this up agine....

Is it save to use a Dollmore Grinding stone for a doll with out eye wells? I've never done this befroe and want it to be perfect...well to an ectent any way...

 

It is safer to use eye-bevellers to make eyewells but it would be a heck a lot time-consuming as opposed to using a dremel. I tried this myself and thought like my fingers would fall off by the end of the day....

 

I don't know if this will help anyone now, but I've taken some photos of my process while I opened my Fairyland Breakaway's eyes There were absolutely no eye wells in there - there was a faint indention but nothing useful... I'm not a professional either but I've done personal doll modifications on multiple occasions. This was just the first time I opened completely closed eyes.

Materials:
eye protection
breathing mask (I wore one like a doctor's - nothing fancy)
20mm eye bevel
.5 lead pencil
dual-speed basic rotary tool (Mine is a Dremel 4.8V MiniMite Cordless)
Water - plenty of fresh water
Xacto (or similar blade) with the #11 blade
Clear place to work
Lots of light
Minimal distractions

Cleaned head, ready to modify...


(Sorry this one is blurry) Marked where to drill into the head with the tiny drill bit evenly (somewhere where I would be cutting around later) I wet around the eye area so that resin dust wouldn't fly around too much.


I drilled into the marked spots with the little screw-looking attachment (it was about 3/16" of an inch long) Sorry I didn't photograph it... I can though later


After the first drilling, I wet the head in water and began to bevel the eye wells inside the head and beveled for a couple hours until I could see the holes I drilled in from the outside

Pin-sized hole seen from inside the head

The next thing I did was to mark on the outside the shape I wanted the opened eyes to be (I tend to mark a little smaller so that after I fine tune with the Xacto, it's the correct size)


After marking, I changed the drill bit on my Dremel to a small grinding bit and began to slowly widen the eyes and thin out the resin


Once I reached a much more manageable thickness with the resin (workable with the Xacto) I stopped, remarked the eye shape, and then start to bevel the back again


Personally, I don't like thick eye walls, so I sanded mine down in the back until the eyes looked like this on the outside. But the eye wells already had definition and could certainly fit a pair of eyes inside after the first beveling (the shine is water to prevent the resin dust from flying)


When the eyes looked like the picture above, I put the Dremel away and took out my Xacto with a new blade to cut and fully define the eye shape. (Sorry I forgot to take progress photos of that...) I prefer a sharp definition to the eyes so I didn't sand the opened eyes down, but that's a personal preference thing. =)

These are the finished photos of the eye opening and how thin I beveled the eye wells down to



...
I hope this helps someone

 

N-i-c-e.... like the smooth finish you obtained on the eye lids. I have a 1/2 closed head I might decide to try it on. Where did you find the eye beveler, was it here in the States or did you have to order it from over seas? Great work.

- ShadowHawke -

 

before（Jiao yang）：



After 1：



After 2：






Jiao yang and Jiao zi



End~~~~！（Left is Jiao zi）

 

Thanks DemonMiko, great pics. I visual and that helps.

 

What is the best way to open up a slighty opened eye?

I'm waiting for my unoa lusis akubi (the yawning one) and I want to open her eyes a little bit

 

If you only want the eyes a little bit more open, then I would suggest fine sandpaper.
If you are comfortable using a knife (X-acto work great), then you could also use a knife,
but I wouldn’t suggest doing so if you have never done any mods before, or have never worked
with resin.

Sand paper is the safest way, although it can go very slow – the damage will
be minimal if it is your fist time, or if you just don’t know what you’re doing.
You probably already considered this, but drawing an outline of on the eyes of how
much you’ll open them (or the shape you’ll reopen them to), also works as a guide.
Hope that helps!

- Enzyme ^ ^

 

Sorry, ^^" I think this was directed at me but I missed it... I got the eye beveler from a site called http://www.miniworlddolls.com

At the time they had no more 18mm so I got a 20mm instead, but I wanted to give this particular doll larger eyes. They're based in the US if it helps any =) They were pretty quick about shipping after I placed the order.

 

Volk's ZM Diamond File set of 5 works like a charm if you need finer grit for filing. (*´∀｀*)

 

Sorry for being so dense about this, but do you sand the upper eye lid or the lower part of the eye opening? Or both? I want to open up sleepy eyes so more of the eye is showing.

 

jarmie, it's usually a preference thing... I think most people only open the upper eyelid to do eye openings. But for widening, it depends what sort of look you want. I personally like to open a little of both the upper and lower eyelids.

If you notice, when you open your eyes, both your upper and lower eyelids open (the upper opens up more than the lower) so that's what I think about when I open eyes.

 

As DemonMiko said, it is a matter of preference. I would personally sand more of
the upper lid, because I like my dolls to keep a certainly length to their face,
but it is very much a matter of personal aesthetic. Also, if you like thicker uppers-lids,
you might want to sand more off of the lower-lid, or vice versa. In this case there is
truly no wrong way. Hope that helps good luck! ^_____^


- Enzyme

 

I'm personally one for the power tools, a dremel will work well for sanding away gently at the eye until it's perfect, I'd go in from the back of the head first personally

 

I've searched the whole thread, but I can't seem to find an answer to my question.

I'm interested in seeing eyes opened, with a new eyelid crease carved back in. All I have seen so far is just resin removed for the eye hole and leaving it at that. I've not seen any with a new eyelid crease as well.

Any pictures or thoughts on how to do this would be greatly appreciated!

 

Making an eyelid crease, I first carve with a hobby knife the line and then using a roundtip vile and sandpaper to make the crease a bit deeper.

Some examples:





With sleeping eyes I got more space to make an extra crease

[rough not smooth sanded version]

 

Thanks for the tip, Sint!
I actually bit the bullet tonight and just went for it. I used my tiniest bit to make a small crease and then sanded it to look nicer.

I plan to do a few more eye mods, I'll be using your method next time. The dremel -though it worked nicely- was way too nerve wracking. o.0

Thanks!

 

Hey guys, Anyone knows how to give dolls eyelid creases? Because my doll arrived with no eyelid creases at all.. it was just painted on.. Since you guys mod sleeping eyes to open, i thought you guys would give them eyelid creases ~ Need some help here..

 

Hey Everyone,

So I didn't really like the way that my boys eyes were so I took the advise of the people here and tried to open them

Luckyily I think I did a pretty good job...



Ok so this is Zero's original face-up and as you can see (i hope) his eyes are too closed...



Ok so now that I have him clean, I had noticed that there was a crease line that I could follow with the Dremel tool that I was planning on using...(for the first time I migt add



Ok so here is the first eye that is done, as you can see its a lot better then the other one that is still closed



Here is the second eye open...I still haven't sanded them yet so they are still alittle rough, but at least they are the same



Ok I know the photo is a little dark, but I put his eyes back in to see if I liked the way they looked and I was very happy with the way he turned out...now I just have to redo his face-up

So what do you all think???

 

hi
it seems to look good but the pics are really dark and the focus is not clear..could you please upload some more pics?would like to see the modding better ^^thanks

 

I'll try but the new pics might be awhile...my camera broke so I had borrowed the one from work for this...I'll see what I can do, sorry for the bad pics

 

From what I can see, the symmetry is great! Awesome job for a first modding! I can't wait to see him sanded and repainted. What a doll

 

Even through the darkness, I must say you did an awesome job! Having those crease lines to follow certainly makes things easier, but you still had to do the actual work and follow those lines and from what I can see you did it really well. I definitely like the new look better than the old one. I hope we can have some clearer pics at some point, but well done you anyway! XD

 

ok ^^ i have often the same problem with my cam*lol* so....the eyes seems to be even and you did a great job on the opening,i could never never neeever do the eyeopening so even!!!
thumps up ^^

 

Ok so I was able to borrow the camera from work for the weekend and I was able to get some better shots of the finished eye opening lol...I will also be uploading pictures of Zero's new face-up in another thread also

 

I've got the MNF Woosoo mod and I adore everything about him! There is one little problem though. He had purple eyes, but his eyes are so small they look black. I want to mod his eyes open to the lid crease. I know exactly what it would look like, I just don't know what tools to use. I have an exacto knife, but that unnerves me.

What items should I use and also what kind of sandpaper should I use to smooth it out afterwards?

 

When I have done eye openings in the past, I have not needed to use an exacto. I ended up getting a set of small metal files. These enable me to take the modding at my speed and won't accidentally gouge into the resin. I would also recommend getting an eye beveled since the top of the eye would end up being thicker than the top eyelid is currently.

The beveling actually takes me more time than the filing part.

Good luck!

 

Metal nail file. Got it! And I feel stupid for asking, since I've had my baby for almost two years now, but what is beveling and how would I do this?

 

The "Search Forum" function works really well!

http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?21594-Eye-Bevelers-How-to-Bevel-Eye-Wells

 

Thanks to all of you for the great advice and pics here on opening eyes. I am about to open the eyes more on my Elfdoll Yumi and this really helps.

 

I just used a Exacto knife and fine grit sandpaper. If the eyes are already slightly opened, this works really really well, and was rather simple to do. I will upload photo's later, but I really liked how it turned out.

 

Question: How fine should the sand paper be for smoothing out the eye wells you carve? I'm going to try fayerie's method of opening eyes. ^^

 

Ah, Sounds like a lot of work, I think I would rather just buy another head. I know alot of them have open and closed eyes faces.

 

Some heads don't have both versions of open and close. And even if they do, you might not like the eye shape, or it might not fit a character you had in mind for it. It's a bit of work, but you can't argue with the end results of getting exactly what you want.

 

I know it is possible to get the eyes of a dolls sleeping plate, does it look ok? Does anyone have pictures I could see? Obviously I wouldn't do it myself I'd get it done properly lol :p

 

I will open the eyes of my sleeping Minifee Miyu. What knife can I use best?

 

Here's my mnf sleeping Eliya, after I modded her eyes open, and painted her.

 

The thought of doing this myself terrifies me. o: But all the pictures I have seen of people doing it look great!

 

This is very helpful...will need this in the future...thanks so much!!

 

I made a rookie video about my modification adventure if anyone wants to see

 

Is it best to open eyes from the upper eyelid? What does it look like if you take off any of the lower lid? Just curious as I want to open up eyes on Ingenieuse and I’m unsure if I should shave the top or top and bottom?

 

I hope it's alright to post in here. I'd love to try my hand at opening up a sleeping faceplate that doesn't have any eyewells. Is it doable without a dremel? I do have an exacto knife and could pick up some sand paper and perhaps some nail files...

 

It depends on what your desired final look is; if you want to make the length of the face a bit longer take off from the top lid, and if you want a shorter face take off from the bottom. If you want to have a balanced length, not too long and not too short, take off from both top and bottom lids. Depending on how much resin you remove, you might end up with a face that looks a bit older, or younger. If you make the face look longer by taking the resin off the upper lid only, you will make the sculpt look older, and vice versa. Good luck! (:

You can do that but it will be pretty hard and painful (on your hands) to keep the wells round and "smooth." If you get yourself a beveling tool it will be much cheaper than a Dremel, but it will be easier {on you and) to keep the eye-wells round and smoother as well. I linked to the ones on that particular shop, but I am sure there are cheaper ones out there (I think I paid $5 for mine). Use those as reference, only so you don't confuse them with the ones with wooden balls. The all wooden ones are sizers, used to size/make the eye-wells in clay sculpts, not to sand the eye wells in already cured materials. The eye beveling tools have hard-rough sanding balls at the ends (usually pink, but not always). Hope that helps! (: