Best Glass Eyes in 2024

I think glass eyes have become what acrylic eyes have been years ago. It's just this cheap mass produced thing you get from places like Taobao/Aliexpress/any of the bigger BJD dealers, and there are no high-end glass eye makers people really go for anymore (like Lauschaer, they still exist but I don't think they're a big thing among bjd collectors anymore, not even in Germany).

The urethane options are nowadays so vast, if people want something high quality and specific they go for one of the numerous urethane makers instead.

 

Japanese artist Silver.
I recently bought from Silver with the help of a proxy and they are stunning- beautiful colors, nice depth and subtle shimmer/sheen however I won’t be keeping all of them them.

Pictures by @xxxsaturnxxx
Colors pictured: edo purple x2, blue/gray (greenish), dark grey.


Volks SDC Gretel

Unknown head, Volks?


グラスアイ販売　HandMade GlassEye ★Silver★

There’s also Miyabi.
MIYABI GLASS STUDIO


I know there are lots of nice eyes for sale here in the marketplace as well

 

I own a few pairs of glass eyes, all from Japanese eyemakers -- Miyabi Glass Studio, Hitomiya, waterprism (miyakosuga/fairytaleblueforest), and "old" Zoukeimura. I love all of these and think they're outstanding quality. I also bought them all secondhand from sellers outside of Japan.

But I'm mostly a urethane/resin eye user for several reasons...

• Resin eyes tend to have the level of detail, intricacy, and colour that I want for my dolls. In these areas, readily-available glass eyes simply cannot compete.
• Glass eyes that DO rival resin eyes tend to be made by Japanese eyemakers, and all of them are very hard to acquire new outside of Japan.
• Because glass eyes to my standard are hard to find and quite expensive when I do find them, I only buy them in an opportunistic way.

@esuko keeps a glass eye journal on their Instagram account, and I've found it quite helpful as a reference! ^^

As to why I love the eyes I have... they have immense clarity and glow. When these eyes are inside a doll, they usually produce a highlight over the pupil that creates a "follow-you" effect, where a doll seems to always be looking at the camera no matter what angle you photograph them at. I happen to like this "follow-you" effect a lot, and all my glass eyes do this very well when inside a doll. Some of my resin eyes also do it, but glass seems to be exceptionally good at producing a highlight over the pupil no matter what the lighting conditions are. I wrote more about this on my doll blog.

 

I understand you, I don't prefer resin eyes either. My favorite glass eyes are from Chicabi, they are nothing flashy, just simple and beautiful, with a good variety of colors and sizes in my opinion

 

@Novalyna Chicabi eyes look nice on their site, do you have photos of yours? Are there glitter speckles inside?

There’s also the ”Beetles” series, at affordable price. Available on many places, here are two of the sites where I recently ordered other things (without any problems) but they have these and other eyes and tonfs of stuff.
Dolly Planet BJD
BJD,Legenddoll,bjd,Ball jointed doll,BJD accessories

I also love Enchanted Doll Milky urethane eyes. They are so beautiful with their subtle shinner and deep colors.

 

I've been eyeing those also! (If you'll excuse the pun ) But the shipping from Asia makes them a bit less affordable for me

Does anyone know how these Japanese glass eyes compare to German makers, such as Kanis Augen?

 

I haven't bought eyes in ages, but my favorites by far have always been Kanis Augen. It looks like they're still in business. Now that I'm getting back into the hobby, I think I'll definitely place an order with them soon... thanks for the nudge for me to remember they exist!

Glasaugen für geliebte Puppen, Bären & Teddys

 

I'm not quite sure if Hand Glass Craft is still in business, their website is still working. I guess if you were interested you could always try and contact them first. I don't know how their quality is these days, it had gone a bit down by the time I bought from them many years ago (did a group order, a couple of eyes had a bubble). I still have almost all the pairs I ever bought from them and I reuse them for any doll in which they will fit since I really like them and they always look nice in photos. As nice as they are I stopped buying from them because their prices are steep for my liking.

After them I used to buy from Captured in Glass but I have no idea what happened to them, I received an email from them a couple years ago that they were still active and to order by email if I wanted, but they got rid of their higher quality eyes (EN line I think they were called and I have a couple of pairs of those and they were very good for the price) so nowadays I just buy from aliexpress or dealers because I can't find cheap/mid range price glass eyes anywhere else and I don't want eyes from other materials that will yellow over time.
I also buy glass eyes secondhand if I'm lucky to find size and colour I need but this is a rare occurrence.

 

I've been a fan of Kanis Augen since 2005, and I just placed an order for 4 pairs of eyes a few weeks ago. For the most part, I find KA excel at more understated and natural eye colors, but I do have a stunning pair of pale gold eyes that are *chef's kiss* perfect. The quality I've received has always been impeccable. Since I'm in the US, I try to buy more than one pair at a time to help mitigate the shipping costs. Here are the golden eyes in Tashi, my ID75 Xian.

 

@green_judy
Thanks for the picture! Do you have a picture with more of your KA eyes out of doll? I’d really like to see more of them before I order.

 

I have some out of doll, yes! When I get home from work, I'll take a few pics.

 

My go-to glass eyes are nichinichi (bright and simple), Miyabi (the seasonal flower eyes are gorgeous) and Irisdolleye (love the colour mix).

 

What about Rosa glass eyes? Anyone know where to find them?

 

I am not a photographer, I have one not so high quality picture of some on my doll's profile (it is always dark before I get around to doll time ) No, they don't have any glitter. In my opinion they are represented accurately in the sales pictures. However if you are looking for more details or glitters they may not be the right fit for you.

It seems that Luts still carries glass eyes but I haven't own any of their eyes in a long time, so I can't speak for the quality. But they have several with glitters, flecks and multicolors. Not as much size options, the majority of them are 16mm or 14mm. They are closer to budget eyes but still seem nice ^^

 

Here are 2 pairs of Luts glass: (image link)
14MM S GLASS EYES NO037, 14MM S GLASS EYES NO001
I did not enjoy the surprise of the pupils being green glitter. I really expected them to be black from the image, but I suppose I didn't look close enough. I'm still using them, but not in the doll I intended them for.

 

oh my, the color looks really different from their sales pictures Thank you for sharing those photos

 

Kanis eyes, post 1 of 2. These are not great shots--I didn't have good light--but they give at least a sense.