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Glass eyes can be captivating in porcelain dolls, but for many cloth dollmakers, it may seem unwise to put something breakable in an otherwise unbreakable doll. I used glass eyes in my cloth dolls for years, but I had a hard time finding glass eyes for my scale of work (one-quarter life size) that had the right sized iris. They were usually too big, especially in brown eyes. So I experimented with making my own "glass" eyes out of unbreakable materials, giving them the proper proportions for my small scale work. One method I have come up with is fairly easy and gives very realistic results, so I am happy to share it with you here. The first thing you need to do is to establish what scale you are working in. For example, if you are making a doll of a female adult, you can assume that the average height is around 5 feet 6 inches (66 inches). Now measure the height of your doll. As long as the doll's head is in proportion to her height, all you need to do is to divide the doll's height by the human height. For example, the height of Lucille is 15.5 inches. So, 15.5 divided by 66 equals .24. You can round that off to 25, which translates to 25 percent, or one-quarter. So I will divide all the other full-sized measurements by 4 to get the proper sizes for my doll. Do you understand that Jessica is one-quarter of the height of a real human woman? And that all her measurements will be one-quarter the measurements of a real human woman? This is where the term one-quarter scale comes in. The average size for the human eye is 24 mm (about one inch), so my doll needs 6 mm eyes (about one-fourth of an inch). The measurement for the iris is about half the measurement for the eye. So, a full sized human iris is about half an inch across, and my doll's iris will be 3 mm (about one-eighth inch).
The next step is mixing the correct color of oven-hardening plastic clay for your doll's eyes. You can use Sculpey, Polyform, Fimo, or Cernit, whichever you prefer, or have on hand. If they are available in colors, you can mix them together to get the right shade for your doll. If you must work with white clay, you can add colors by using tiny amounts of acrylic paint. This is also more economical than buying the separate blocks of clay just to use a small piece of each color. Use paint from tubes rather than creme or liquid paint. For my scale, I would start with about one tablespoon of plastic clay, and add a dab of paint about the size of a grain of rice. flatten the clay between your finger and thumb, add the paint to the middle of it, fold the clay over and squeeze. Keep stretching, kneading, folding and squeezing the clay until the color is uniform throughout. Add more paint, or more clay as necessary to achieve the color you need for your doll's irises. Now get ready to bake. For such small amounts of plastic clay, I always use a toaster oven. Make a tent out of aluminum foil to cover the length of the oven tray. The tent will protect the clay from being scorched and blistered by the upper elements of the toaster oven.
An important note. Do not use the same toaster oven that you use for food. Buy a cheap used toaster oven from a flea market or yard sale. Put the oven outside on a porch, or in a well ventilated room. Do not remain in the room with it while the clay is baking. Some people, myself included, can get headaches or other symptoms from inhaling the fumes from some clays while they bake. It is better to be safe, and use caution when using materials such as these. You may not experience any noticeable side-effects, but why take a risk with your health? Prepare a tabletop as a workspace by taping a piece of waxed paper to it. Now knead the clay to warm and soften it, and then roll it between your palms to form a cigar shaped roll. Lay this roll on the waxed paper and roll it gently to lengthen and thin it. when it gets close to the correct diameter for your doll irises, use the oven tray to finish rolling it out.
This will make the measurement more even from end to end, and insure a better match for the two eyes, right and left. If the roll is longer than the length of the oven tray, use a sharp knife or razor blade to cut it into lengths that will fit on the tray. After rolling them out, Lay them gently on the tray keeping some space between them. Place the tray in the oven, (don't forget the tent!) and bake at a slightly lower temperature than the manufacturer recommends, for about 10 minutes. Check with a fingernail to see if it is cured. Test at one end, not in the middle. If your nail leaves an impression, keep baking. If it bounces off, then the clay is cured. Remove it from the oven and let it cool undisturbed. Once cool, you can add a nice touch by painting the surface of the roll with thinned acrylic paint. Use a shade similar to but much darker than that of the clay. This will make a ring around the iris which helps to distinguish it from the white of the eye, and it adds a bit of detail that is very lifelike. Two thin coats is all you need. Let it dry thoroughly before you handle it again. Now, with very clean hands, knead some white plastic clay until it is warm. You may want to add a little white paint to it, to make it even brighter. After mixing the paint in thoroughly, roll it out on some fresh waxed paper to a roll about the diameter of the finished eye (6 mm in my case). use the same measurement to cut the roll into sections, and then gently roll each one into a ball.
Go back to the iris roll. Using a very sharp knife or razor, cut this into lengths at least twice the size of the finished eye. You will need to add at least one half inch to the eye measurement to give yourself something to grip. Pick up one of these sections and stab it into the center of one of the white balls. Push it all the way through to the bottom of the ball. Gently pinch the top of the ball to the iris roll to make sure it sticks.
Then, gently lift it from the waxed paper and lay it on its side on the toaster oven tray. Continue until all the eyes are put together and laid on the tray. Cover with the tent and bake as before. Check after about 15 minutes. Test the clay on the side near the stem end, not on the round end. When cured, remove from the oven and let cool undisturbed. Hold one eye with the iris roll parallel to the surface of the worktable and rest the ball on the surface. Use a craft knife or razor to make a cut on the front of the eye to reveal the iris.
Using very fine sandpaper, or wetdry paper, smooth and shape the front and sides of the eye to a round, even shape. Leave the surface of the iris flat. Note: Try not to inhale any of the powdered clay. Use a dust mask, if necessary, and brush the dust from the eye with a soft paint brush, don't blow the powder, as it will spread all over the room. Using ordinary modeling clay, make a roll and press it onto the workspace to form a base for your eyes to stand in. Use clean hands to press each eye into the base with the irises pointing up. Now, drop a single drop of almost black paint onto the middle of each iris to form a pupil. Use a tiny brush to drop the paint. Don't make the pupils any larger than one half the size of the iris. (1.5 mm in my case.) Let the paint dry completely before going on to the next step.
Use a clear varnish, nail polish, polyurethane, acrylic gloss medium or polyester resin to build up a lens for the eye. Drop it in the center of the iris with a small brush, and let each application dry before adding another layer. You should end up with a slight bulge over the iris. When this is completely dry, paint the rest of the eye with clear varnish, or whatever you are using.
Don't worry about the back of the eye. Only the front will show. Let the varnish dry at least 24 hours to insure that there will be no smudges or fuzzies on it. Cut away the stem after inserting and gluing the eyes into your doll's eye sockets. These eyes will add so much life to cloth-faced dolls, you will wonder why you never used glass eyes before. They are not breakable, like real glass eyes, but they give the look and the shine of real eyes that is otherwise very hard to achieve in cloth. This article is a
revised reprint from Cloth Doll Magazine, Volume 9, number
1. For more information about making cloth dolls with inset
eyes, read my book Cloth Dollmaking, available in the
bookshop.
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