Eye Putty to stay or take out?

I remove any putty provided by someone else, since I don't know what it is. I replace it with blutak, then leave them in, at least until I want to move or change their eyes. I've had some with the same blutak in for 10+ years and it's been fine!

 

Over fifteen years on some of mine, although I tend to use silicone ear plugs more than I use tacky putty like whitetak, whihc does tend to dry out/harden, but is never difficult to remove, in my experience.

Teddy

 

I have some dolls whose eyes have been in place for 20+ years with problems. As long as the putty isn't exposed to extreme temperatures, it'll be easy to remove.

 

I only remove eyes if I’m changing the look. I use Faber Castell white tacky putty and it has never hardened in any of my dolls.

 

Echoing the others, I tend to leave mine in unless I'm changing eyes or changing eye position (which isn't super often). I use Loctite sticky tack these days, and I used to use white tack, so that's in some of my heads still. So far I've had no issues with any of them.

The only issues I've ever had with eye putty was the clay-like stuff that some dolls come with (either from a company or from the previous owner) getting kind of hard, so I'll assume it depends on the kind of putty used.

 

In my experience putty that's intended for posters like blutac doesn't really turn rock-hard, but I don't have any samples that are more than like 3-4 years old so YMMV.

I live in a hot/humid area so I've had more trouble with old putty getting too soft and sticky, rather than turning hard. Easy enough to fix by putting the head in the freezer for a bit, just better not forget it in there lmao

 

Mack's silicone ear plugs are the only thing I use. They're inexpensive, do not stain, and don't harden. I've had blutak stain the sclera of a very nice set of eyes once, and the stuff that comes with most dolls is often questionable.

 

On the other side of the coin, I've had the silicone ear plugs affect the soft silicone eyes making the clear outer lens become cloudy. I couldn't think what was wrong until it came up in discussion here on a thread about doll eyes. So now I stick to poster tack.
A few of the dolls I've bought second hand either had hardened putty or gooey stuff inside the head. I don't know if they were original to the doll but all were dolls over 10 yrs old. Both types were easily cleaned out without damaging the doll head or the eyes.

 

If your doll ever arrives with peach clay like stuff in there GET IT OUT. It's polymer clay and it's not good for Resin long term. It seeps oils into plastics... like polyurethane resin. So why do they use it? NO IDEA. I've never figured that one out.

 

Is this what you're referring to?



It came with my Dollmore doll and I liked the colour so I got some more to use on future dolls. I guess it's no good then?

 

I'm fairly sure it's polymer clay, but I've been wrong before. Put it on a piece of cardboard for a few days. If it leaves a nice big oily stain on the cardboard, I wouldn't put it on my doll. Silicone earplug putty or white poster tack putty are my two safe bets.

Edit to add: The upside is, if it's polymer clay, use it to make your doll some fun accessories! There's a lot of tutorials on youtube for making things out of it, then you can paint it with regular craft acrylic paint.

 

I remove any glue/putty used to keep the eyes in place and replace it with silicone ear plugs. I’ve always used Macks silicone ear plugs in my Dollfie Dream heads and they worked great for me!
I do want to note all my eyes are resin so I haven’t had issues but as mentioned by cthulhu, they do ruin silicone eyes.

 

This was the stuff that took off part of my Pukifee's faceup! I thought it was just a side effect of being exposured to extreme temperatures during shipping.

 

@SaltedPretzel
That's awful! I'm not taking any chances then. My boy is going to be eyeless until I can get a safe replacement.

 

I use white poster tack, and I leave it in all the time, sometimes years. I've never had any problem with it on any type of eyes.

 

I'd actually never heard of that before; thanks for letting me know. I've also never had any silicone eyes for that matter.

 

I use either silicone ear plugs or white tac. (I have a history of putting the unused ear plugs in "a safe place" and not being able to find it for months.) My eyes are all glass or resin. No problems so far. One of mine has been wearing the same eyes for 11 years with no problems.

 

Confirmed polymer clay. I'm so glad I know this now. Luckily my doll seems fine even though this has been in his eye sockets for two years. Thanks again @Rosslyn!