Marvelous Wearable Monsters

I love old monster movies. One of my favorites is The Crawling Eye. When my husband came home from his special effects shop with a bag of random resin eyes, I just had to start creating Crawling eye figures.

I went from the dolls to making wearable pieces. I mean really... who wouldn't want a beaded representation of alien monsters who pop the heads off unsuspecting
humans?



I have dolls, barrettes and pendants in stock at the moment as well as resin eyes if you'd like to make a monster of your own.

So, What do you think?

So, I usually make these very elaborate beaded eye jewelry pieces that are large collars or cuffs. Which of course makes them pretty expensive.

What do you think of these smaller pendant versions? They take less time, but have the heavy beading I like.

Any comments would be welcome.... Thanks

Reintroducing Products....Resin Eyes

I was going through my stash the other day and found several single eyes that I want to offer for sale.






I know you might be thinking...."What can I do with a single eye?" Well a focal piece for a necklace, collar, cuff or a cyclops type figure might all be good choices. It's what I do with them.

I listed one of the 2 types of orange eyes I have this afternoon. I have a grey green and a peach eye as well that I plan to list. Stop by my etsy shop and try out a new and unusual supply.

Making Resin Eyes Tutorial

My husband makes a lot of the eyes I use in my dolls and jewelry.

He wrote this
tutorial to add to my blog .



First you'll need a silicone mold of a sphere the size you want your
eye to
be. It needs to be a one piece mold thats open at the back.


Get some Devcon Clear Two Component Epoxy from your hardware store. Also
get some dry tempera paints.

First, mix up a small amount of epoxy and use the black tempra paint to
make it black. VERY CAREFULLY, using a toothpick or some similar tool,
collect a
blob of the black epoxy on the end of the toothpick and carry it to the
mold.Let a pupil sized drop fall right into the middle of the spherical
mold. Don't let it hit the side of the inside of the mold and run down to the very
bottom, you must hit the center/bottom of the mold on the first try. You are
creating the pupil of the eye, and it must be perfectly round!


As this sets up, mix a larger batch of epoxy and tint it the color that
you wish the iris of your eye to be. Using the toothpick again, or better
yet a cheap disposable paintbrush, collect a dollop of the iris colored epoxy
and drop it into the mold right on top of the black pupil that you have just
created.
Of course, the iris color should flow beyond the area of the pupil.
Again, hit the center/bottom of the spherical mold the first time! to get a perfectly
round iris.

While this epoxy is setting up, mix a larger again batch of epoxy and
tint it a cream or white color. This will be the white of your eye. Mix
enough to pretty much fill the rest of the mold. Pour it into the mold and it's
best to let the whole thing set overnight. The following day, demold the eye
and see how it looks. If you are happy with it, and since most dolls, figures have
TWO eyes, you now get to make a second eye just exactly like the first! Good
Luck! Once you have your TWO eyes, I would lightly sand them both to get rid of
any textures that may have formed on the surface of the eyes. Once they
have been sanded evenly, coat them both with an untinted coat of epoxy to give
them a wet look. Sometimes a second or even third coat of clear epoxy is needed to
get a uniform coating.

This is a really down and dirty way to make fake eyes.Your biggest
hurdle will be to get some molding silicone to create your spherical mold.
You'll also need a sphere to mold. A Ping Pong ball, large marble, etc.

Locate Burman Industries on the internet to purchase silicone molding materials, and
information on working with it.

Good luck! Be forewarned -This takes a great deal of practice, silicone for the molds is expensive and expect a high failure rate while you are learning.

New products - Eyes and Stories

I've been experimenting with making these crocheted wrist cuffs. I just finished and listed this one this morning. Since it was a Hex Cat I used the old resin eyes.


I used the glass taxidermy eyes on this cuff. I really like how this turned out. I'm working on a new Futhark Cat that has hand painted glass eyes. I love that VanDykes offers glass blanks that you can paint yourself.

I really thought I might give up the resin eyes, but on some pieces they just look so good to me. But having tons of eye options is a great thing because it opens up so many possibilities for new styles of dolls and accessories.

My newest venture is the Pet Shop of the Old Ones coloring book my husband and I have been working on. We found these great string tie folders to use as portfolios and the drawings and the story are at the local printing shop now. We hope to have these listed in our Etsy shop by the beginning of next week. I finally put down all the stories I've added to my descriptions of the animals I make. MJ's drawings are beautiful and I hope my story is as good.

In search of the Perfect Eye-The Next Step

When I started making dolls, I just used beads for eyes. Eventually beads weren't good enough. My husband MJ brought me some cast off resin eyes that they sometimes use in "background heads." They might not have been right for film, but they were perfect match for my style of working.

I love these eyes in my pieces, but they are time consuming and expensive to make. I haven't wanted to give them up, but I found VanDykes Taxidermy www.vandykestaxidermy.com/catagory/1
Their prices for glass eyes are much less expensive than the resin ones. I was worried that I would have to choose from a set color list, but they offer clear glass eyes with just a pupil.

I'm thrilled that I can still have custom color eyes. One nasty problem with the resin was that the pigments would sometimes react over time and change the iris color. I'm not going to have that problem with glass.

My favorite part of the planning process has to be the color matching. These material swatches and eyes became this little green bunny Dunwich for LibraGear
It will be nice to choose colors and not have to try and anticipate what the resin may or may not do six months down the road.

So now I am again at a crossroads in my work. The glass eyes that I am beginning to use now will still have a hand done quality and be more durable. But in some ways, I'm going to miss my resin eyes.