DIY Dollfie Dream eyes
Create your very own doll eyes
Today I want to share a tutorial about creating your own DIY Dollfie Dream eyes.
Because sometimes there aren’t the “right ones” available. For me the eyes of a doll are an important part, if not one of the biggest. The fact that I am very unsure about some eyes of my dolls does not help either. So why not making your own DIY Dollfie Dream eyes? In this first tutorial we will use resin and silicon molds for the eyes.
In this DIY Dollfie Dream eyes tutorial we will use some silicon mold out from a shop. So this tutorial is very easy and great for beginners, or those who want to start right away!
Attention please ALWAYS read and word according your materials information, usage and safety instructions. The process and information may differ from produt to product. So Please keep this always in mind.
What you need
- Resin
- Pigments and color for your resin
- Silicon molds for the eyes (Etsy – I got mine from VelvetWay)
- Disposable cup and sticks or something similar to mix the materials
- Paper towels or aluminium foil
- A plastic box for covering
- gloves
- lighter
- toothpick
- Respirator mask (Very important! Unhealthy or even toxic chemical substances can occur while working with Resin)
- A scale for your mixing ratio
1. Prepare your workspace
First off you should find a plane place to work on. Even better if you can keep your resin parts there to cure. Use an underlay to prevent any damage on your furniture. Make sure there is no unwanted dirt or dust. Prepare your materials and don’t forget your mask & gloves!
2. Create the eye base
2.1 Mix your resin
Best case you already know how much resin you will need for your silicone mold. If not, don’t worry, adjust the amount after each try until you get it right! Best is to start “little” so that you don’t have to throw away your resin.
Now weigh your materials (resin and hardener) with the help of your scale. You have to get the right mixing ratio for your resin. You can find the missing ration usually on your resins packaging or on the internet.
Next step is to mix them together thoroughly! I recommend to mix your resin rather slowly and longer. Otherwise you might create bubbles in them. Take care that you don’t create any extra bubbles while accidently folding your resin (like a cake dough for example).
2.3 Fill in the silicon mold
Take care that your mold is clean and free of dust. Be careful when putting the resin in. To reduce bubbles, you can put the resin with a tooth pick in on the edges of the mold first.
Are your mold full you can use a lighter to pop any bubbles on the surface of you resin. Just stroke the flame on the surface over your resin. You can repeat this part after a few minutes. This way you can also check on if any other new bubbles came to the surface while standing.
2.4 Curing
Work according the information for your resin. The time for your resin to cure can vary from some hours to several days. Use some bowl and put it over the form, so that no dust will fall into the mold.
3. Mold for the „Dome“?
First what is a dome? It is the clear resin part which stands above the pupil of your doll eyes. It makes the eyes and design more 3-dimensional.
You do not necessary need a mold for your domes. If you happen to have one, you can put some clear resin into it as well and leave them curing. If you don’t have a mold for tem don’t worry, I will tell you what to do later.
4. Prepare the eye design
4.1 Design
You can use a software if you want or you can even draw them on your material. Be creative, you can mostly use whatever design or medium (which paper etc.) you want to.
The size of your designs depends on the eyes size. You can also simply measure the size when the eyes are done later if you don’t know it.
4.2 Test the material compatibility
Before „creating too many designs „on one medium, you should test the compatibility before. This means how the print, drawing, color will react with your resin. This way you can see if everything does go well and work out with each other.
It is much likely possible that your material will absorb your resin (also on the edged). This means he edges might appear darker, and it does not not very good at all. This way you can also see how your colors will react. That means if they get darker and if you have to adjust the print a bit before and so on.
5. Put everything together
In this last part you have to put your eyes together. Take your resin parts out of the mold. After that you an glue in your eye designs (you can use some clear clue to fixate the designs). Please also test the glue before and how they will work with your designs.
a) „Dome“ from the mold
Put the mold on top of your doll eyes. If needed you can also use som glue here.
b) No mold for the dome?
If you do not have a mold you can mix together some more clear resin. You can put the resin on top of your design into the eye. Be careful and take your time, you don’t want to ruin your doll eyes right? After that it needs to cure again.
In this step you can also use some UV-Resin. This specific resin hardens under UV-Light in a couple of minutes.
Done with your Dollfie Dream eyes!
I Hope you liked this little tutorial and have fun with creating your own eyes! I’m pleased to see your eye creations, share your work with me in Instagram @dollmoons.
My experiences & some last advices
I had extreme fun creating the eyes, especially because of the handicraft part. However I have to say even after a few runs and time I was not able to make a 100% sure the quality would be good enough for every batch and eye. Usually there were a few eyes with bubbles in every batch! And that is sometimes very annoying, as I had to wait 3 days in a row, only to find some eyes not being good enough. (However I gave you above a link with a faster curing resin, which I had good experiences with)
I also tried other different methods and materials. But that’s for another post then. Thanks for coming by and have fun creating your DIY Dollfie Dream eyes! If you have any further questions I hope I can help. And as always I’m open for tipps and advices too :)