Ideas for making home made custom eyeballs.

Zippy81 · Post by **Zippy81** » Fri Jun 01, 2018 9:09 am

E. Hurley Iris Template:

14mm Elizabeth Hurley Iris Medium Pupil B Template.jpg

Zippy81 · Post by **Zippy81** » Sat Jun 02, 2018 11:57 pm

Just some Generic 12mm Sized Colors:

12mm Tan and Gold Iris.jpg

12mm Green A Iris.jpg

12mm Dark Tan and Gold Iris.jpg

12mm Green B Iris.jpg

12mm Lavender Iris.jpg

12mm Blue A Iris.jpg

12mm Burnt Orange Iris.jpg

12mm Chocolate Strawberry.jpg

12mm Faded Blue Jeans Iris.jpg

12mm Dark Red Iris.jpg

Zippy81 · Post by **Zippy81** » Sun Jun 03, 2018 12:04 am

One More.

12mm Dark Chocolate Orange Iris.jpg

Dollicious2 · Post by **Dollicious2** » Sun Jun 03, 2018 1:05 am

Zippy81 wrote:One More.

12mm Dark Chocolate Orange Iris.jpg

Last but definitely not least , these look so great.

I think 12mm is best look for my dolls eyes
I need to ask if Grim and MF can offer 12mm iris.
Idk if that'll be a huge problem or not but seems to me it's definitely possible.

I love this thread zippy

❤
DL2

Zippy81 · Post by **Zippy81** » Sun Jun 03, 2018 2:58 am

Thanks a bunch DL2

Dr Dollinger · Post by **Dr Dollinger** » Sun Jun 17, 2018 3:18 pm

WOOOW
Outstanding work man!
Can't find enough words to describe how much I appreciate what you are doing here. Absolutely great presentation & pictures!
Thank you so much for your effort and for sharing it Zippy!

Will definitely try it out!

As a head collector, this is a very important part for me to create a unique style
Love the MannequinFan eyes, but can't buy them all

Zippy81 · Post by **Zippy81** » Sun Jun 17, 2018 3:54 pm

Hey thanks Doc!

Glad you found it informative! And I agree about eyes being important for sure!

Mishka1965 · Post by **Mishka1965** » Mon Jun 18, 2018 12:32 am

Zippy81 wrote:Hey thanks Doc! Glad you found it informative! And I agree about eyes being important for sure!

I just finished my 3d printed eyeballs and I painted them in a off white acrylic paint then and added epoxy finish.
I added 14 mm irises that I made here printed on an inkjet as well and today I did my first photo shoot with Bella, and the results are looking very good. So I decided to make a set for all my dolls and now with movable eyes, I can get that look I'm after. The eyeballs take me 3 hours per pair to print at 100uM resolution, and a small magnet goes into the back of each, so I can use MFs irises and my own as well for compatibility.

I am almost there, and last bit to be perfect would be to design adjustments in the back to set the eye in the head right and get rid of the cotton backing.

I'll show pics but one can search for my latest Bella pics to see. They did come out rather blue, but I desaturated the color in post.

Getting the iris to look as good as MFs will take more time, and I just want to use the pics here as reference and get this figured out.

Mishka

Zippy81 · Post by **Zippy81** » Mon Jun 18, 2018 1:42 am

Good to hear mishka! thanks for sharing! Yea printing can be a bit of a bear given all the different hardware,paper, and printer configurations available now. I once wasted an entire inkjet refill just testing different settings. Where do we look up your Bella pics at? Here on the forum?

Mishka1965 · Post by **Mishka1965** » Mon Jun 18, 2018 10:19 am

Here's a pic from the set. This Iris is the one I made for the set, and initially was baby blue, but I desat. the color

In this pic, the color is as filmed. It looks nice, and I will for sure make many more iris'

In another set to be posted, I used my eyeballs and Iris' together, and they do look fine.

Mishka

Zippy81 · Post by **Zippy81** » Mon Jun 18, 2018 12:25 pm

Oh nice! Looks great mishka! Thanks again for sharing!

Mishka1965 · Post by **Mishka1965** » Mon Jun 18, 2018 11:59 pm

Thanks,

A real tough part for me is not gluing the cabochon, but cutting the iris out after gluing. I used a razor blade but it's not exact science - just lots of cutting..

I was looking to see if one can buy a 14 or 12mm paper punch, but not yet see anything. I wonder if one could be made from something - like a piece of copper (or anything) tubing diameter and sharpen the edges..?

Mishka

Zippy81 · Post by **Zippy81** » Tue Jun 19, 2018 2:06 am

https://www.amazon.com/Punch-Bunch-Smal ... hole+punch

I've used that one. But I find it just easier to cut around the cabochon with small finger nail scissors. I know they do make leather punch tools in various sizes. Might be expensive though.

Zippy81 · Post by **Zippy81** » Sat Jun 23, 2018 7:49 pm

THE PLUG N PLAY INSERT.

So thanks to an idea that my friend avante gave me i'm going to try a new method that will allow the cabochons to blend into the sclera and have a more natural appearance. The magnet and washer idea is awesome but gets costly and the inability to have quality control gets wasteful on the magnets and washers. So the idea is a plastic insert that will sit inside the insert space where the magnet and washer were. This will allow me to just pop in the cabochon by itself rather than messing with gluing on washers and worrying if the magnets are mis-shapen.. so..

Here is step one of that process.

STEP ONE OF CREATING THE SILCONE PROTOTYPE VERSION OF THE PLASTIC INSERT PLUG PIECE:

Take one of your unpainted/finished plastic eyeball front castings and put the screw in it. Then screw that into a plastic sauce container and then screw that into the bottom of a mouth wash cup that's been flipped upside down. Make sure everything is screwed down tight as possible so the screw head rests flush on the bottom of the inside of the eyeball front insert space.

Make sure the surface that the upside down mouth wash cup is setting on is level.

Now mix a small amount of mold making silicone and using a small craft stick carefully drip-pour it into the insert space of the eyeball front. Don't fill it all the way but leave a small amount of space at the top of the insert space as you'll be placing a cabochon inside. Once the silicone is poured place the cabochon inside and GENTLY press down until the flat raised portion of the bottom of the cabochon is rested inside the insert space. At this point you'll notice silicone coming out around the sides of the cabochon. Just wipe it off with a tiny bit of twisted up paper towel. You'll need to do this a few times as you work SLOWLY and GENTLY pushing down to align the cabochon.

Keep pushing the cabochon down and rotate the container around so you can inspect each side to ensure the cabochon is seated evenly. You don't want any of the flat raised portion showing. By doing this the cabochon's domed portion will blend perfectly and seamlessly into the sclera. Once you've insured the cabochon is seated allow the silicone to cure for 4 hours. to be continued...

Plug and play step 1!.jpg

Zippy81 · Post by **Zippy81** » Sun Jun 24, 2018 11:37 am

Silicone insert plug removal and mold prep.

*Don't worry if you find bubble pockets present after removing the cabochon. This side of the insert plug will be covered with glue and glued to the bottom of a molding container.

Silicone insert plug removal and mold prep.jpg