Recommended Eye Putty

i use the clear silicone ear plugs that you can buy in the drug store, for just about everything. inserting eyes, holding on wigs and loose face plates, attaching props to hands temporarily. sometimes they can get a bit too sticky, but i've always been able to get it off fairly easily with no damage, and i love that it is clear so easy to hide, inexpensive and easy to get where i am. the last is really important as ordering stuff by mail here is a pain.

 

Faber-castell tack is sticky and works well with almost all dolls. I found out right now that it is a complete fail with Impldoll resin. The putty sticks to my fingers but not to the doll. This happens usually with Chinese brands. In this case I recommend silicone eyeputty, it is less sticky but it works!

 

I was wondering the same thing! Thanks for helping me out

 

I just use Blu-Tack cause it's cheap and what my roommate recommended. She'd used it with dolls for years without any trouble, though she did recommend I stick with the grey-white stuff instead of the colored putty.

 

A bunch of people use white sticky tack like teachers use school supply section of any store.

 

My favorite method to put eyes on my dolls is hot glue, I used several types of eye putty, but the 18 mm heavy glass eyes used to detach often and also found so annoying to try to position the eye. So I tried with hot glue gun, and I liked it a lot, because once it's dry the eye wont detach until you decide to remove it, of course the tricky part of this is to hold the eye in position while you put the glue:
I hold the head facing the floor so when I put the eye inside the gravity helps me hold the eye, and then I arrange the position with a finger: index, middle, or any, and then put 1 or 2 dots of glue, wait to dry, carefully remove the finger was holding the eye, and put the rest of the glue dots I need. With practice now I put the eyes relatively fast (faster than when I used eye putty).
I started putting a hole ring of glue around the eye ball, but I found out later that it's easier to only put 4 or 6 dots of glue around the eye, that will hold the eye as good as the complete ring of glue, but it will be easier to remove the eye using only dots. When I want to remove eyes I use pointed pliers to grab and pull the dots of silicone. I have glued acrylic and glass eyes, never have had problems with the heat (no deformations) of course I'm very careful trying not to touch the eyes nor the resin with the tip of the hot glue gun.

 

I never would have thought about hot glue! I would burn my fingers doing that - if I weren't so clumsy with my glue gun I would do that! Do you use high or low temp?

 

I use kneaded erasers to keep my eyes in. They are quite cheap ($3AUD) available in all art stores and they do a brilliant job.

 

I like kneaded erasers or white poster tack. Mack's clear ear plugs were a bit sticky/tacky for me when I would be adjusting the eyes. I felt like it left residue on my fingers so I'd always wash my hands after touching it, but to give it credit it did hold well. To each their own

 

I don't have any dolls yet but I do have loads of white sticky tack so that's what I'm going to use. I know it never leaves any residue and as long as it's warm it sticks to just about anything really well. Also cheap and easy to get at any school supply store, or just about anywhere during back to school. I will say, don't use blue! The blue sticky tack leaves a residue behind the white stuff doesn't

 

I use the Mack's silicone earplugs for my dolls' eyes. They work really well, but they might be just a tad too sticky? Pulling them out can leave some pieces behind, but its really easy to remove. I plan to try out white post tack next though, since I keep hearing good things about it as eye putty.

 

Macks is the best I have tried. Comes off great from the eyes when you want to remove it. Feels easy to shape around the eyes, just make a snake. Keeps eyes in place.
Blue tack I tried once long time ago and didn't like it at all, kind of an elastic contacting action hard to use.

 

Mack's. I had tons of blue tack from the dollar store but I wanted to try something else. Someone in a YouTube video suggested the eat plugs and I was a convert.

 

I am a devotee of hot glue, but I may have to give some of these others a try. Especially the kneaded eraser, Mack's ear plugs, and the white sticky tack. Thanks for all of these great suggestions

 

The problem with the teal/blue ones, unless they've fixed it in the last year, is that it will slowly dry out over time and leave a residue. Trust me, my mom's been a teacher for like 10 years, our household knows about sticky tack! Haha. If you take out the eyes and remold the putty often enough that won't happen, but if left for a long time it will dry out and leave faint greasy residue behind. Again, unless they changed their recipe recently

 

Well, I only got the idea from reading people who got Volks dolls which had eyes attached with silicone (by the way they where complaining about having difficulties removing the silicone, they said it was gooey, some said the eyes on their dolls were un-removed for several years. I have had eyes glued on my dolls for a year or more; and I have never had that problem (only I noticed the silicone was harder to remove the longer it was there, that's why I recommend using dots, and just for safety to not leave the eyes there for years and years without refreshing the glue, I also think Volks silicone may be different, don't really know).
Yea, I started to use the hot glue because I have some heavy 18 mm eyes in one of my dolls, and I tried to stick her eyes with putty, white sticky tack, but the eyes kept sinking in her sockets or detaching. The bigger the doll; the easier is to put the eyes in, although I put the eyes of my 16 cm tinies too with hot glue.
Oh, something very important I forgot to mention is I remove the head of my doll to hot glue the eyes (this may be a con to many people whom like to change the eyes often).
Yes, with the glue gun method you won't be able to move the angle of the eyes unless you remove the glue and arrange the position of the eyes and glue it again. It's a more permanent method to hold the eyes.
I use the normal school supply type of glue gun. Volks sells a nice hot glue gun with a longer and thinner tip that I wanna try in the future (I'm not sure if it will work with the silicone I buy here where I live).
I wish you luck using the glue gun

I don't know if my gun is high or low temperature, like cyndscynderz mentioned I use a "normal school supply type of glue gun" the kind you can buy in any craft or school supply store, even in Walmart or big store like that.
Once I got the hang of it I don't really burn my fingers (anymore... :P I'm not gonna lie, I did burn a few times when doing this, nothing hard, just the kind of burn when you touch the hot glue, but I like the result so much I don't really care).

 

Ok- thanks! That's probably low temp. I have a gun that does both, and boy does it hurt when you accidentally get the high temp glue on your hands! Note to self: (pro tip) try low temp for your own safety.

 

I've been looking for some good eye putty/eye putty alternatives for a while now- this is very helpful!

 

May I ask which brand is that please .... thanks

 

From the Customizing Thread Index Sticky at the top of this forum: /threads/eye-putty-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly.1027/

@gary, one US brand of clear silicone earplugs is Mack's, though most chain drugstores (such as Walgreen's and CVS) carry their own house brands, too.

 

It's Blutack for me! I could shake my dolls for hours and nothing would happen :'D

 

On my first doll my eye putty just kind of froze up and would not adhere to anything. So I tried the silicone earplugs, and they worked great. They are kind of sticky, but so far are working amazingly well.

 

Bluetack/Stickytack works fine for mean. Generally anything dry and stiff won't work too well.

 

I recommend UHU Tac if you can find it. The white stuff. One package goes a long way, and it comes in handy little squares. I've had it in my dolls for a LONG time (close to... 9 years now? wow.), and it's worked quite well, and has caused no damage to any of my dolls, or their eyes. Acrylic, glass, silicone and urethane.

They've kept my dolls' eyes in through three moves, one across the country.

However, it doesn't work as well if you're in an area with lower humidity, so keep that in mind.

Make sure you stay away from the silicone earplugs if you're using silicone eyes, as they don't mix well (think melting). If you're using any other type of eye, I've heard they work just fine

 

I bought a secondhand doll head once that had some silicone ear plug residue in it. Took me forever to get that stuff out! I would think I'd scraped it all off, but then find more. I sometimes suspect there's still some in there. I've had similar experience with the "eye putty" that comes in heads bought from companies (notably soul doll), which is essentially just sculpey. It's irritating to scrape it all out, and it feels oily.

What I actually use is white sticky tack. Not sure what brand, since I threw out the package, but it's whatever I find at wal-mart for about a dollar. Sometimes it takes a minute to get it to stick to the resin, but once it's in, it's in, and it's worth the momentary hassle to save my future self from having to dig residue out.

I will admit that I've had heavier eyes fall into heads, but I remedied that with a little more tack on the back.

 

I'm so happy I found this thread so I don't make any mistakes with the eyes on my first doll Thanks for all the wonderful advice on the different methods

 

Hi!
Do you use the blue sticky tak? Does it stain the inside of the head blue?

 

Brilliant!

 

I use white sticky tack. But it can sometimes become a bit too sticky after a while imo. I’ve had some dolls come with a nude colored putty blocks that work very well, but I don’t know what it is, reminds me a bit of plasticine. If anyone knows what that is I’d like to know since the white tack can sometimes be a pain to remove when it has become pretty hot in the summer.

 

Found something new that works so well. Silicone swimmers ear plugs. They are semi translucent, sticky but not too much so and they secure the eyes very nicely.