Movable eyes the dollar store way

AIMD · Post by **AIMD** » Tue Mar 21, 2023 8:34 pm

For those people who cannot afford manufactured movable eyes, or DIYers with access to only basic tools, I think I've come up with a way of making movable eyes cheaply.
Go to the dollar store, buy a bag of marbles and as you can see the marble fits almost perfectly with just a little space in between. Grind down the marble using a bench grinder which takes about half an hour for each eye. You'll notice there's flaking but it's not a concern, it doesn't affect the function and the edges aren't sharp. There's quite a bit of thermal mass and strength to the marble so you can press harder than you would expect but if the marble starts feeling warm take it off of the grinder and let it cool naturally. If it gets too hot there's a chance it'll shatter. I ground about 1/3 of the marble but you can grind to suit your height. To speed things up you could use an angle grinder with a thin cutoff blade to score and cut but please be careful. You can make your companion's eyes but they cannot make your fingers! And of course wear safety glasses. The glass gets molten at times (especially with the angle grinder) plus flakes and minute shards of glass can fly about. Once ground to the height you prefer put your new base flat side down inside the eye socket, put the eye on top and make him/her give you that look!
Good luck and go slow, patience is the key. If you can find plastic marbles they would probably work great as well. The glass is very smooth which helps move the eyes quite easily.
What's also cool is just using the whole marbles in place of the eyes. Gives a demonic look!

gogodolls · Post by **gogodolls** » Sun Mar 26, 2023 7:08 am

AIMD wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 8:34 pm For those people who cannot afford manufactured movable eyes, or DIYers with access to only basic tools, I think I've come up with a way of making movable eyes cheaply.
Go to the dollar store, buy a bag of marbles and as you can see the marble fits almost perfectly with just a little space in between. Grind down the marble using a bench grinder which takes about half an hour for each eye. You'll notice there's flaking but it's not a concern, it doesn't affect the function and the edges aren't sharp. There's quite a bit of thermal mass and strength to the marble so you can press harder than you would expect but if the marble starts feeling warm take it off of the grinder and let it cool naturally. If it gets too hot there's a chance it'll shatter. I ground about 1/3 of the marble but you can grind to suit your height. To speed things up you could use an angle grinder with a thin cutoff blade to score and cut but please be careful. You can make your companion's eyes but they cannot make your fingers! And of course wear safety glasses. The glass gets molten at times (especially with the angle grinder) plus flakes and minute shards of glass can fly about. Once ground to the height you prefer put your new base flat side down inside the eye socket, put the eye on top and make him/her give you that look!
Good luck and go slow, patience is the key. If you can find plastic marbles they would probably work great as well. The glass is very smooth which helps move the eyes quite easily.
What's also cool is just using the whole marbles in place of the eyes. Gives a demonic look!

Sounds like a pretty clever idea!

I'll have to try it!

Thanks for sharing! BRAVO!

Cheers!

Socratus · Post by **Socratus** » Sun Mar 26, 2023 7:16 am

Great idea.

And making custom Blinking eyes. viewtopic.php?p=2326289#p2326289

I dunno why they can't think of stuff like this. They are not complicated. WE can only keep petitioning these things to the manufacturers until one of them catches on.

EBmoist · Post by **EBmoist** » Tue Mar 28, 2023 1:09 pm

Rock and roll bro! Thank you for the tip- im going try this asap

AIMD · Post by **AIMD** » Sun Apr 09, 2023 11:30 pm

There is also something called cold porcelain which is made with cornstarch and white glue. A tutorial can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT16gFFr1O8 and the clay could be pressed into the back of the eyes (coat the eyes with something first) and leave a small stub on the end for the base. Once dry it could be sealed with nail polish. Haven't done any of that but was thinking of doing this with other eyes instead of using marbles. The marbles work great but it is a bit tricky working with them.

MrJ · Post by **MrJ** » Tue Apr 11, 2023 7:32 pm

That is very awesome. I could definitely see the plain marbles being used for some of the fantasy dolls.

AIMD · Post by **AIMD** » Thu May 02, 2024 12:36 pm

Working with glass is tricky and someone had mentioned using ping pong balls for eyelids so I decided to try and make a base from a ping pong ball. The eye doesn't move as freely as with the glass marble but it still does move.

: Pingpong_ball_and_eye.jpg (297.36 KiB) Viewed 1521 times

Put the eye on the ball and draw a line around the base of the eye on the ball. Then cut all the way around about half a centimeter or 1/4" from the line. I found cutting about 1/2" or 1.3 cm from the line with a utility knife and then trimming to size with scissors worked well.

: Base_cut_out.jpg (273.32 KiB) Viewed 1521 times

The eye will slide over the surface of the base as this base is much more stable than the marble.

: Eye_on_base.jpg (203.39 KiB) Viewed 1521 times

AIMD · Post by **AIMD** » Thu May 02, 2024 12:58 pm

MrJ wrote: ↑Tue Apr 11, 2023 7:32 pm That is very awesome. I could definitely see the plain marbles being used for some of the fantasy dolls.

Plain marbles do look really cool in place of eyes! Depends on the depth of the eye socket and how big the marble is you can get varying effects. On this one the eye sockets are quite shallow and full marbles are used. With deeper sockets the marbles sit farther back creating a more surreal look.

: Alien_eyes.jpg (319.17 KiB) Viewed 1512 times

Mister Designer · Post by **Mister Designer** » Thu May 02, 2024 2:08 pm

An interesting idea but difficult for me personally to implement in practice. I don’t have a sanding machine or a store where I can buy a transparent hard ball. To make the eyes of my homemade dolls, I decided to use ping pong balls or plastic white balls for a children's inflatable pool (eyes for big-eyed dolls). In my city such balls are on sale. I decided to make the pupil from a sticker printed in a printing house on a plastic eye. These eyes, made of plastic balls, rotate absolutely freely in their sockets. I’m also thinking about the idea of making movable eyelids for such eyes from fabric and aluminum wire. so that they open and close.

Post by **Layla and Laura** » Thu May 02, 2024 3:23 pm

AIMD wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 12:36 pm Working with glass is tricky and someone had mentioned using ping pong balls for eyelids so I decided to try and make a base from a ping pong ball. The eye doesn't move as freely as with the glass marble but it still does move.

Pingpong_ball_and_eye.jpg

Put the eye on the ball and draw a line around the base of the eye on the ball. Then cut all the way around about half a centimeter or 1/4" from the line. I found cutting about 1/2" or 1.3 cm from the line with a utility knife and then trimming to size with scissors worked well.

Base_cut_out.jpg

The eye will slide over the surface of the base as this base is much more stable than the marble.

Eye_on_base.jpg

Hun just used hobby shop half marbles, no grinding needed.
viewtopic.php?p=2459884#p2459884

AIMD · Post by **AIMD** » Thu May 02, 2024 8:02 pm

Layla and Laura wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 3:23 pm
Hun just used hobby shop half marbles, no grinding needed.
viewtopic.php?p=2459884#p2459884

I was looking at doing that before the marble idea but couldn't find anything that would fit. I'm glad you've shown it works.
Using a ping pong ball as a base is much easier than the marble if people don't have access to what is needed. Plastic balls the size of the marble would probably be better.