Mad Doll Doctor

I chose German blown glass eyes for my rockers. Once have the shape of my rocker, I begin building up the structure with Apoxi Sculpt..have I mentioned I LOVE Apoxi Sculpt?

I place the eyes on the rods and build up the Apoxi around then. Then I set them aside for awhile. When the Apoxi clay is just about hardened I try out the eyes inside the head and make any adjustments I need to make…say if one eye is looking upward and the other is turned south, making the doll look like your weird cousin on your dad’s side that nobody wants to talk about. Once you are satisfied that the eyes are perfect, very carefully take them out of the head and set them aside to finish drying.

Now we are ready for winkies. On really small eyes I sometimes use a piece of dark brown silk ribbon, which I cut in two, then remove cross threads until I get a very thin line of solid and long fringe “lashes”…kind of like when you cut the bottoms of jeans to make shorts, they unravel and get fringe–are you with me? However, these are large eyes so I am going to use the fake eyelashes you get at any makeup counter.

You will also need some tweezers and glue. I’m using Krazy glue GEL because it leaves you a little wiggle room to arrange lashes. I have painted the eyelid so I know exactly where I want my lashes to go, you may want to do this as well.

I cut one eyelash in two. Next spread a thin bit of glue on the eyeball right above the top of the iris, and use tweezers to apply lashes. Do not get glue in doll’s lashes, (or your lashes, mouth, ears, or any other part or orifice)

Let dry. You can now cut the lashes to the proper length. Next roll out a small amount of Apoxie Sculpt, roll it thin and even like you’re making pie crust. You’ll need two pieces and you want them to be very thin.

Lay the Apoxie just over the top edge of the lashes. Blend it with a wet fingertip until it is smooth and as thin as you can get it without breaking through to the edge of the lashes. You do not want to make the eye bigger, only cover the raw edge of the lashes. Make sure not to get the Apoxie in the lashes themselves.

When you are satisfied, let the eyes dry. Once dry, you can give the lids a very light sanding with fine grit paper, if they are not quite smooth. You can now finish painting the eyelids and the rest of the rocker.

Next: In part three we will set the eyes in the doll’s head.