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jadepixel

Making resin eyes for DD

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jadepixel

So lately I've been working on resin eyes. The process still needs more refinement, but they're starting to look like the real deal! These are cast white resin with the eye print Mod Podged on, then coated in crystal resin. Next time I'm going to try a flatter base with a crystal dome, poured in the reverse order so I can do both in the same mold.

 

Anybody else tried this yet? Any tips on working with resin would be appreciated

 

eye-7755-520x346.jpg

 

eye-7794-520x346.jpg

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Yukamina

Those eyes look really nice! Ha ha, I tried to make resin eyes ages ago, but it looks like you are light years ahead of my attempts.

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faustbane

I've tried before but my resin casting skills are...not good ^^;; My casts always seem to have bubbles.

 

If you'd be so inclined, I'd love to see your process when you polish it a bit more


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Innocentsake

Your homemade resin eyes look really nice! The purple pair you have your girl modeling look very bright Looking forward to seeing your progress

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Amara77

They look really good the colors are so nice and vibrant!


http://amara77.wordpress.com blog and shop

Spoke too soon....

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Pihlajakoto

Very nice result resin eyes Those eyes look so nice and bright.

 

I just bought resin liquid to try making eyes too in the one mould using clear resin and then white resin on top method. But I forgot to buy the stuff that keeps silicon from sticking to pieces I use making mold, so my experiments will come later...


My blog Pihlajakoto

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jadepixel

Thanks guys! I feel like I'm progressing, slowly.

Stage 3 eyes did not come out perfectly, either.

 

eyev3-7969-346x520.jpg

 

Copypasta from the blog:

I thought I could shortcut the mold making step when I found some ready-made 22mm resin molds online. However, these proved to be imperfect- they aren’t perfectly round, they have a little dimple at the peak which will be noticeable to sharp-eyed doll fans. Also, I ended up with lots of micro-bubbles in the clear resin. V_V

It could be due to low temp while setting, or uneven mixing. Even the white resin had problems as I got it *too* warm and it began to set before I finished my pour. For stage 4 I will try a more flattened eye shape using decorative glass pieces as the model, and making a mold from them in silicone. Then I will be more careful to control temps, using a heat pad under the crystal if it seems too cool while setting.

 

I did discover that the eye print doesn’t have to be added immediately to the resin after pouring. In fact, if you wait an hour or so for the resin to start setting, you can add the print with no ill effect. It will be less likely to float out of place, and you could also avoid using prints on eyes that have obvious bubbles.

 

Comparison to Volks eyes:

eyev3-7971-520x346.jpg

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JChiibs

This is something I've thought about a fair amount because I need really specific eyes for my male 07 head. Just for reference, what brand of clear resin are you using? What is the standard curing time? I'd have to look it up again, but from a tutorial I ran across many months ago it made mention of a brand of clear resin that was less viscous so there was less problems with the bubbles. Honestly this is something I've wanted to do for a long time but it hasn't been a huge priority for me so far. It's good to know about waiting before putting the iris part in, that part of the process always confused me because wet paper doesn't look pretty. Another part of the challenge is getting perfect molds, and in the right sizes too.

 

If you have any other additional info to add, I'd love to hear it.

 

I really want my Naiomi to have green eyes, but I'm honestly not happy with the Volks ones she has, nor have I found any others that seem right and are a darker/deeper green rather than really bright. It would give me another excuse to consider seeing how this process works.

 

~Sister Kyoya


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Forum Blog: Badger Pocket Tales (Family story from the beginning) | { Old Family story reboot: Start Here! }

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Yukamina

I thought I could shortcut the mold making step when I found some ready-made 22mm resin molds online. However, these proved to be imperfect- they aren’t perfectly round, they have a little dimple at the peak which will be noticeable to sharp-eyed doll fans. Also, I ended up with lots of micro-bubbles in the clear resin. V_V

The dimple shape is normal for doll eyes, but I guess not for animetic? It mimics the shape of a real eyeball and helps add depth. What I did when trying to make resin eyes was make the molds myself out of doll eyes I already owned. 2 problems I had with that was getting the eyes evenly in the silicon (not on a tilt), and the fact I only had one pair of eyes to make mold with ^_^;

 

But good luck! From a distance anyway, they look really nice!

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jadepixel

Sister Kyoya, the clear resin I'm trying is EasyCast Clear. It has a long 3-day cure time, but doesn't produce high temps or toxic fumes so it can be used indoors. If I can't get it to work with a few more tries, I may go for the hard stuff instead

I was worried my prints would bleed or tint the resin since they turn wet/translucent when you place them on the uncured resin, but it worked out fine. For molds I'm going to try decorative glass stones (the kind for floral arrangements) but I've heard of folks using marbles for moldmaking too. I'm in the midst of a heatwave so I have to wait a bit to try again though.

 

Yukamina, it's not a dome like some glass eyes have, it's actually a little bump at the peak of the mold. You can't see it too clearly in photos, but in person it just aggravates me. I know what you mean about getting the mold level, I'm hoping my flat-bottomed glass stones will solve that problem.

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kaylynh1

one way for getting rid of the little bubbles is pull together a cheap vacbleep chamber for them while theyre curing (everything ive made with cast resin i didnt care about bubbles so much so i havnt gotten to make one yet) but ive seen people make some out of a jar with a thick bag lid and literally attatch a vacuum to it. After you get the bubbles out they stay gone as far as i know and you dont have to keep the vacuum on them. But again i have not actually tried this but i do plan to, and i'm sure theres some nice tutorials on youtube and the web but i jsut wanted to throw that option out there.


At home: Carrie (kos-mos), Mia (miku),Bjd's: Creator (soom sard), riley (bobobie Apollo mod), Quinn (feeple 60 Chloe mod), Chloe (leekeworld tan mickhaila)

Eventually: rise kujikawa, saber extra, mariko, alisa

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jadepixel

Somebody on Youtube mentioned that heat would force out the bubbles, so I'm thinking when I try again I'll place them on the hotpad I use for sprouting seeds, that should make sure they stay warm constantly.

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Ravendruid
one way for getting rid of the little bubbles is pull together a cheap vacbleep chamber for them while theyre curing (everything ive made with cast resin i didnt care about bubbles so much so i havnt gotten to make one yet) but ive seen people make some out of a jar with a thick bag lid and literally attatch a vacuum to it. After you get the bubbles out they stay gone as far as i know and you dont have to keep the vacuum on them. But again i have not actually tried this but i do plan to, and i'm sure theres some nice tutorials on youtube and the web but i jsut wanted to throw that option out there.

 

We have a vacuum sealer with an attachment for quart jars, I wonder how well it would work curing them that way? We may have to experiment a bit when we can get around to it.


Daddy of: Yuriko, Sohi, Miku and SK's many kids

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jadepixel

I made a new batch and it worked pretty well this time!

For the mold, I used the decorative glass stones embedded in modeling clay, and made a silicone mold from them. Then I applied a mold release agent and used the two-stage pour technique aka eyeball sandwich - clear resin, eye decal, white resin.

 

There were a lot less bubbles in the clearcast resin this time - I was very careful not to agitate it as much and to keep the temps warm. After the clear set for an hour, I checked and saw a few large bubbles. Using a toothpick I was able to tease them out and save the eye

I let things cure on the seedling hot pad and that definitely helped as we have cool nights in summer here, and the pad maintains a steady 75F.

 

The results aren't perfect but they're good enough to use at home, and I feel like I'm onto a pretty reliable method now

 

As for the vacuum chamber method, I think you'd have to make a mold that would fit neatly in a jar or small container. It probably is ideal for a two-part mold which is poured into a spout and doesn't need a lot of room to maneuver. Maybe you could custom rig a tupperware container or something? It's worth investigating.

 

resin_eyes-0764-520x346.jpg

 

resin_eyes-0773-520x346.jpg

 

resin_eyes-0786-346x520.jpg

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Innocentsake

Glad to hear that your experiments continue to render better results than before I really like the first pair pictured as I think the color is beautiful

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JChiibs
As for the vacuum chamber method, I think you'd have to make a mold that would fit neatly in a jar or small container. It probably is ideal for a two-part mold which is poured into a spout and doesn't need a lot of room to maneuver. Maybe you could custom rig a tupperware container or something? It's worth investigating.

 

What I had mentioned to Raven was about using the marinating trays like this, or like this one that would work with the vacuum sealer that we have. It doesn't give a huge amount of room but much better than in a jar. Also more cost effective than an actual vacuum chamber that also requires a air compressor. For something small like eyes, I really don't know why it wouldn't work.

 

How do you like the shape/fit of the eyes using the flat glass marbles?

 

~Sister Kyoya


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Forum Blog: Badger Pocket Tales (Family story from the beginning) | { Old Family story reboot: Start Here! }

Follow me on Twitter, Flickr & Instagram

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jadepixel

What I had mentioned to Raven was about using the marinating trays like this, or like this one that would work with the vacuum sealer that we have. It doesn't give a huge amount of room but much better than in a jar. Also more cost effective than an actual vacuum chamber that also requires a air compressor. For something small like eyes, I really don't know why it wouldn't work.

How do you like the shape/fit of the eyes using the flat glass marbles?

~Sister Kyoya

 

Wow, I think that type of vacuum sealer would work perfectly! I used a tofu tub for my mold and it's pretty similar to that sealable tupperware.

 

I like the glass drops for depth, they fit nicely on the heads and aren't so curved that they distort/magnify the eye decals. The downside is that they aren't perfectly circular on the edges, so they look a little clunky outside of a doll.

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mk13

Those look pretty nice! My favourite is the first pair as well~

 

Could you please explain a bit more what you mean about using the decorative glass stones embedded in modeling clay? Do you mean you used the glass stone for the clear lens part and the clay for the white part of the eye?

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jadepixel
Those look pretty nice! My favourite is the first pair as well~

 

Could you please explain a bit more what you mean about using the decorative glass stones embedded in modeling clay? Do you mean you used the glass stone for the clear lens part and the clay for the white part of the eye?

 

I used the glass stones to make a mold from. The soft clay makes a nice base, I can embed the stones a bit and it keeps them from moving as well as making a cleaner edge for the eyes. Then on top of them I poured silicone rubber mix, which sets into a negative of the stones. Into my new rubber mold I pour my resin mix, giving me resin eyes in the same shape and size as the glass stones. I'm using two types of resin (white and clear) in my mold.

 

Here's an example of mold making for a doll torso (warning- doll boobs)

http://dollstories-bjd.blogspot.com/2011/04/making-mold-for-upper-torso.html

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mk13

Thanks for sharing your process. I was thinking of glass wishing stones which already have a flat bottom rather than perfectly round stones, hence my confusion.

 

I also found this tutorial which uses tea filters like a strainer to take out some of the bubbles and dirt.

 

Please let us know how you go with the food vacuum sealers if you decide to try them out

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chien

Those look amaaaaaaaaaazing! Wonderful work!

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faustbane

Thank you so much for putting your process up here! I really want to make my own resin eyes at some point


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