Happy Carnival... and Doll Eyeballs

We brought home groceries from Trader Joe's in the truck, so we took a wine box to put them in. When I got home and started to unload the box, this was looking back at me on the counter. I have the mask, but not the outfit for one of my dolls. I need to sew faster :D.

I wasted some time yesterday on Ebay, looking for a particular wig. Didn't find it, but I did find a listing by mybayer for a "Lot" of doll eyes--for around 600 dollars you can buy 1000 pairs of eyes, though they choose the colors/styles (you can pick the size). You can just buy one pair but that didn't seem too exciting. Here's the photo of the eyes at the factory:

I love those things! It's like a dragon hoard of jewels. They offer two styles, stems and smooth backs. Smooth back are my preference as they don't hit the S hook inside the doll's head, but lots of people like the stems so they can turn the eyes in the wells easily. I just cut my fingers on them. Here's the artist trimming down what will become the iris:

Here are the styles I have here

The homemade ones are pretty self-explanatory, I made them for a doll that just had a slit for eyes, so the gold was effective--he didn't really need a full eye. Plus the price was right. I love the glass Ginarolo eyes, they are beautiful in photographs, but they don't fit all eyewells and they are heavy, and the most expensive eyes I buy. You can put them in with plasticine, official "eye putty", blue tack or silicone earplugs--they don't care.

The cheaper acrylic Safrins are very light, inexpensive, look good in photos, and you can use plasticine or blue tack on the backs fine--I haven't tried the earplugs because they are supposed to ruin the soft silicone Soom and Eyeco eyes. The Silicone "squishy" eyes are good for uneven eyewells or very shallow eyewells, and if you are very brave you can trim them to fit the eyewell with scissors.( Cat does not like them because she says they get hairy in two seconds, which is also true--but you can rinse them with cool water and shake them off, too.) They are more fragile than the hard eyes. Then there are Souldoll eyes. I have no idea what they are made of--they are hard, not translucent enough in the whites IMO, but a nice shape in the back and the darker colors look good in photos. The pale ones are sort of freaky in most dolls. I would have to say the eyes I keep buying are the Safrin eyes, partly because they are in the US and ship fast. Denver Doll's "Glib" acrylics are also affordable, but the shape is tough to fit a lot of eyewells. When they do fit, they look nice, though.