Prices vs. Quality for glass/urethane eyes.

For trying out colors, you may want to look at some of the ebay vendors who sell chinese glass eyes in the $10-12 range. They're a good bargain and pretty great quality for the price, though most will not have threading and the ones that do have threading won't have the tight and subtle pattern you get with Luts, Volks HG, or the german glass eyes. That said, they are very vibrant and catch the light well. You must be sure to ask the vendor if they are high-dome or low-dome; I own a doll with partially-closed eyes like your Tender Zen, and can vouch that high-dome + this eye shape = a lot of gapping. Also, keep in mind that eyes look different depending on different angles of light and whether or not they're inside the doll's head - with a partially closed eye shape, especially, the eyes will appear somewhat darker in the doll.

DD Anne sells imperfect/flawed eyes of the same type even cheaper - $3.30 a pair, though you will have to wait on random restocks and random size/color available at any time. Potential flaws are off-center pupils, too-high domes, etc.

If you're going for the higher-end eyes in urethane or glass, be sure to search for the manufacturer in the picture requests > everything else subforum so that you can see as many examples of at-home owner photos as possible and see how the same color looks in different dolls/different eye shapes.

And, once you gain access to the marketplace, you will find even better deals on second-hand eyes - plus you'll be able to get rid of eyes you no longer need.

 

I've got three pairs of silicone eyes (two pairs of 14mm Soom, and one pair of 15mm Eyeco), and I just don't find I have the problems with dust that everybody seems to complain about. I've found that they come with a bit of mold release on them still, and that makes them a little sticky.
A quick wash with some liquid soap and water, rubbing the surface of the eyes with the soap, then rinsing very well, and either letting them 'drip dry', or carefully patting them dry with a non-linty cloth. And bingo, no more dust problem. Besides that, a tender-eyed doll like the one you're getting doesn't have a lot of visible eye surface area with which to collect dust with.
I really recommend Eyeco, as they do have very nice low domes, and the 'Dreamy Blue' colour eyes I have (which are light blue with a bit of green around the pupil), reflect light quite nicely. They have lots of colour options, and there are a pair of their 'Fantasy' eyes that have a nice light blue colour with high reflectivity (B111 or Crystal Blue Waters).

However, I do agree that it's best to test out sizes with some much less expensive acrylic eyes first before making the plunge into the more expensive eyes.
Good luck, and welcome to the forum.

 

Jumping in with another question: how good are the Luts glass eyes? I like how they look on the site, but I can't find many pictures of them on the forums here and that worries me a little.

 

If you're looking for another suggestion on silicon eyes Masterpiece Eyes are also really good and can look realistic
http://www.softglasseyes.com/

 

Hi!
I thought I might post something too. I have a Kirill and I have 12/13mm Eyeco Louisianna Iris in him. I honestly like the smaller eyes in dolls and these seem to be perfect for him. I don't find they are hard to position at all - matter of fact, these are the easiest for me to get right. I also don't notice too much dust on them, I do take them out from time to time & wash them under water & dry before sticking back in. They track a little bit, but they also glow when the light hits them right and they have great detail. Another thing to keep in mind is DoD's have pretty deep eyewells, so you might have a bit of gapping from eyes. Silicone just kinda fit the eyewells without that gap. So if gaps are going to bug you, silicone is the best.



Here's a photo Amyangel took - He's currently away for face-up, but you can see the glow




I've tried 14mm Souldoll in a couple different colors - here are some light blue ones, and he just looks really cross-eyed - I think these are a little bit higher domed than another pair of SD eyes that I own.




These are a pair of cheap 10mm acrylics I was trying out to see what they looked like before deciding on the 12mm Eyeco.



I've tried lots of eyes and I can't find anything to replace the Eyeco's. You can also try Safrin Doll - She has lots of eyes to choose from and the photos are pretty close to what you're getting. Also in the everything else thread - you can look at lots of different dolls w/different colors.

Sorry to ramble, but I hope this helps a little bit.

 

Oh hey! No problem. Thank you for liking the photos...Glad I can help - I remember trying to search for info for my Kirill and it was daunting.

 

Yeah-- where is this dust problem coming from? Does everybody EXCEPT me live with fifteen cats and a woodworker? I've never had a dust problem. You do have to clean your clay-putty-smeared fingerprints off all eyes before inserting them, anyway, so the dust should be taken care of then.

Tip for cleaning silicone: Sponge-tipped eye makeup applicators. Your local megadrugstore probably sells them in 6- or 12-packs. They have zero lint! Just wet them & rub the eye clean. Air dry. These things are great; lint-free, reusable, cheap. (And I also use them for applying pastels when doing faceups. ^^ They have million uses around the house.)

 

Thankgoodness for this thread! I wanted to say a massive thankyou to all you guys with eye suggestions

 

Since I do realism Make-up,so branded eyes with a large iris I do not accept
I am not satisfied it and I had to learn how to make small eyes with iris 3-4 mm myself.
And I learned how to do them
Here are examples of my eyes