Doll Eyes Awaiting Paint

Eleven pairs of eyes fresh from the oven. The best way to put holes in them is to use a doll needle, which is curved (see it on the left) so that the holes don't show from the doll's eye sockets. Rather, they will be embedded in the stuffed head. I match them up by size; since they are hand rolled they are all slightly different. The trick will be to paint the irises at the exact spot in relation to the bead hole so that they pull through and are centered in each socket.

This makes me thinks that someday I'm going to make a spider woman doll with a bunch of eyes and legs and arms. She will be charming, I'm sure.

I give you my heart

I finished this doll a couple of weeks ago and was delighted with her. As I've said before, these dolls take on a personality of their own, so once they're "finished" it's as if they are not mine anymore. This doll "Valentine" is much sweeter, gentler and giving than I thought she'd be. I think it's the lace and the expression on her face. Check out the whole doll on my website www.jenmcgahan.com in doll gallery 4.

I'm excited about the new eyes. Before this one I'd been painting over the needle sculpted features of the face. I decided to try making the eyes from Sculpy and painting them. As if they were beads, I strung them with strong thread and pulled the eyes through cuts I made between the eye spaces after the doll's head was stuffed. I like the effect, although some of them look a little bug-eyed. After playing around with these bead eyes I think they will just be another variable feature on the face. They do seem to add personality.