I have an Eye question.

OK, so being fairly new to DDs if not ABJDs I thought I would ask the question as to, outside of Volks themselves, where are people's favourite places to buy quality (as opposed to some of the cheap-and-nasty looking anime-style eyes out there on Taobao which I have had some experience with) anime-esque eyes out there? My 1st thought is something like SoulDoll's cast (as opposed to assembled) acrylic eyes from their "Bling Eyes" range or, having a few pairs for other dolls that I love, Makoeye's pupil-less MOON & Dandelion series eyes. However, what are other people's preferences?

I've only gotten eyes from one place besides Volks and that's Ersa Flora:

 

http://www.ersaflora.com/

 

They do excellent work, have good prices and aren't crazy on shipping times and prices. I highly recommend them. And they even do custom orders so if you have a design for eyes you'd like to see made real, they can do it!

 

 

Billy

Arietta project makes really good eyes, I have two pairs and they easily rival the quality of the Volks eyes. They're a bit expensive but completely worth the price imo.

  Skaf said:

Arietta project makes really good eyes, I have two pairs and they easily rival the quality of the Volks eyes. They're a bit expensive but completely worth the price imo.

 

I was hoping that considering the price, Arietta Project eyes were better than Volks.

 

Linda S.

galatia9

  galatia9 said:

  Skaf said:

Arietta project makes really good eyes, I have two pairs and they easily rival the quality of the Volks eyes. They're a bit expensive but completely worth the price imo.

 

I was hoping that considering the price, Arietta Project eyes were better than Volks.

 

Linda S.

galatia9

 

I guess it depends on personal discretion, but in my opinion they are a good enough amount better than Volks to justify the price. For me, at least, they photograph much more easily and look sharper, crisper than my Volks eyes ^^

SQlab eyes are nice too! http://www.sqlabdolls.com/

(If I had to rank all 3: Arietta, SQlab, then Volks)

Also existing but harder to get include White Dolly Story and Blue Rose Garden. BRG are particularly hard as I don't think they're taking orders right now unless something changed.

 

And at the bottom of the quality spectrum but easy to get include Coolcat and Parabox. Coolcat being better/clearer than Parabox.

I have eyes from a lot of places that I use for my 20 girls:

 

Blue rose garden (resin) - never takes special orders, they just occasionally open their shop with mostly event leftovers which sell out instantly in most of the popular colours, probably the highest quality eyes I've come across, and my personal favorites along with the next two.

DSC_8537.jpg by Mahoro, on Flickr

 

Arcana (resin) - YJA only, they used to sell tons of eyes every week, but haven't really done so in months, only with their limited heads. Probably my most used type on my girls, also very good quality.

Sunset Lights by Mahoro, on Flickr

 

Momo-man (resin) - YJA only, she as far as I'm aware has never sold them separately from their custom heads, the 3 pairs I have and love using came from my one custom Momo-man 01.

DSC_8931.jpg by Mahoro, on Flickr

 

Totechi (resin) - YJA only, normally they come with custom heads, but I got a few VERY expensive sets the one time she did an auction of some. I dont care for the designs at the end of the day sadly, but they are quite nice quality. (Mimi below with the blue eyes)

Hanako and Mimi by Mahoro, on Flickr

 

Forest of Aby (resin) - Probably more 'anime' feeling than the ones above in design I'd say, but the iris design isnt as bright, but by design rather than the quality.

Cirno's Custom Ice Blade by Mahoro, on Flickr

 

Nekomasshigura (resin) - YJA only, they usually come with custom heads, never seen them sold separately, I only have 2 pairs that came with my custom head from them, but I dont use them, dont care for the design.

 

White Dolly Story (acrylic) - eyes are just simple acrylic ones like Volks, I don't particularly care for the 2 pairs I've had, they're not as bright as the above ones.

 

Arietta project (resin) - eyes are just copies of Volks limited eyes in design.

 

Coolcat (Acrylic) - also cheap acrylic ones as well.

 

Volks (acrylic) - I've never actually cared to use any of volks ones, not the defaults nor their extra ones.

Edited October 12, 2014 by Guest

Ooo, thanks for all the suggestions. Ersa Flora I've had before and I know the Coolcat & Parabox eyes fairly well, along with the SQ Labs eyes (which I think are made by Pabol Eyes, from memory) but hadn't come across Arrieta Project eyes before, very nice! I was wondering if anyone was making Urethane Anime-style eyes. I think I'll have to try some of those in the future! Thanks, Skaf!

Just stumbled across White Dolly Story now on Flickr, thanks for the suggestion there Jezrah, and Blue Rose Garden's shop now too and, yes, it looks like as of September 28th they resumed orders .

 

Thank you for all the brilliant suggestions everyone.

Edited October 12, 2014 by Guest

  Mahoro said:

Arietta project (resin) - eyes are just copies of Volks limited eyes in design.

 

Arietta also produces original designs (the S-line and the T-line are not copies, but original designs). They also do color variations of Volks limited eyes, so if you want Saber Lily's eyes in purple? That's available. If you want Aoko's eyes in green? That's available. I have the blue/purple variant of Momo's eyes, and they're absolutely gorgeous. They will also work with customers on custom orders, so if you want something totally unique, that can be done, too.

 

Personally, Arietta are my favorite eyes, far superior to Volks in quality, and worth every penny. They are the only eyes that fix the "sunken eye" look that some DD heads can have because the iris is so close to the surface of the resin. The colors are exceptionally bright and vivid -- here is a link comparing a Volks eye and the Arietta version of the same eye.

 

I also have:

 

Hisyo-Hisyo: My favorite of the "traditional" resin eyes that have a high dome. Really lovely designs incorporating multiple colors. These are typically only sold at events, or else I would own a ton more of them.

 

Ronronshuka: Standard resin eyes with high domes, very good quality, although I like Hisyo-Hisyo better. Ronronshuka makes the default eyes for Smart Doll Mirai.

 

Cohullen Druith: Resin "chip" eyes -- these are flatter eyes, without the high dome that most resin eyes have, colors are bright and vivid but I'm not a huge fan of the designs.

 

San-Heart: Acrylic eyes with plastic lenses, very similar to Twin Snow. (San-Heart makes the acrylic eyes for the KK Workshop custom heads, and I believe also KK's line of "character" eyes that they sell separately.)

 

Twin Snow: This shop is now closed, but you can find them on the second-hand market. Acrylic eyes with plastic lenses, can often have a metallic look.

 

I also have a pile of mystery eyes that I've bought at random over the years, some good and some really not good.

Celeste uses the Twin Snow eyes Cauldroness mentioned. I bought them not long before the shop closed, and she gets lots of compliments on them!

 

clips galore by Yami Usagi, on Flickr

 

eyes 2 by Yami Usagi, on Flickr

 

The ones I have are Stardust 05. I've seen Twin Snow eyes floating around secondhand too.

 

The other eyes I have are Arietta T06 in blue. I don't have anyone to wear them yet, but they look great!

This thread has been so helpful! Right now nearly all my DD eyes are Volks acrylics, and though I like them, I dislike the white ring around the irises. I prefer for my irises to be a little smaller, and don't like having that ring showing. So I am inclined to try some of the resin eyes next.

 

It seems to me that Volks has always preferred slightly larger eyes in their dolls than I do. All of my resin BJDs from Volks have had their eyes swapped from 18mm to 16mm, and I find that I am choosing smaller eyes for the DDs too.

 

I have the worst time choosing eyes, as I almost never know what color and size I want in any of my dolls until I have the eyes IN the doll!

 

Linda S.

galatia9

Maharo, you must have snuck that post in just as I was making my last reply.

 

Wow, and thank you for introducing me to Totechi's gorgeous customs, and for all your gorgeous spam of your girls there ♡

Having found forest of aby's webstore, I am guessing eyes there are a case of first-in best-dressed for one-off releases, much like other artist made resin eyes (OscarDoll, for example as opposed to made-to-order artist eyes like Vings), is that right?

Thank you for the wonderfully detailed eye review info too, that really does help!

 

Cauldroness, thank you for the Arietta / Volks comparison pic there, along with all the other very detailed eye review info. Also very helpful! I now have an Arietta Project order now lined up and ready to put through ASAP as soon as I have enough funds available in my PayPal account courtesy of my Ebay sales as I would love to see them in person. Their shipping charges are very reasonable too compared to what I am used to, and I see why - default postage being registered post from Singapore, which is usually pretty quick and safe to Aus, from past experience so I wouldn't worry about paying extra for EMS.

 

Yami Usagi, Celeste looks gorgeous in her Twin Snow eyes there ♡

 

galatia9, I have a bit of a similar eye problem (or addiction in my case, almost) there myself when it comes to my past ordering for my abjds...as a consequence I end up buying a few pairs at a time and hope that at least one pair suits. It's an expensive trial-and-error approach, but sometimes I have happy accidents too where an extra spare pair ends up being perfect for a different doll to the one it was bought for, so I prefer doing things that way. Every now and then I do a clean-up and on-sell some of my spares but I love having my stash of eye-pretties I can't bare to part with just in case the right doll project comes along in the future.

  katzilla said:

Maharo, you must have snuck that post in just as I was making my last reply.

 

Wow, and thank you for introducing me to Totechi's gorgeous customs, and for all your gorgeous spam of your girls there ♡

Having found forest of aby's webstore, I am guessing eyes there are a case of first-in best-dressed for one-off releases, much like other artist made resin eyes (OscarDoll, for example as opposed to made-to-order artist eyes like Vings), is that right?

Thank you for the wonderfully detailed eye review info too, that really does help!

 

 

Yea, I noticed you posted as I was finishing up mine lol. As for "case of first-in best-dressed for one-off releases" I'm not sure what you mean with that?

 

And no problem, happy its useful to you!

Sorry for the confusion, Maharo, was probably a bad way to word it. What I meant was one-off individual hand-made releases here and there as opposed to in readily available batches of ready-made stock or pre-order.

  katzilla said:

Sorry for the confusion, Maharo, was probably a bad way to word it. What I meant was one-off individual hand-made releases here and there as opposed to in readily available batches of ready-made stock or pre-order.

 

Yes, none of the ones I've described in my post are made to order, but ones like arcana used to make so many types that it almost didnt matter anyway. Twin-Snow I got a couple of pairs of custom ones but they werent glued together very well and I dont really use them, but thats all I have in the way of custom ones short of attempting a few myself with a printer and some blank acrylic eyes.

Just gonna post this here for those of you considering Arietta project eyes. They are lovely and crisp, the colours are vibrant, and ordering is super easy, the only thing I have to complain about is the dome. There is none. It's great for getting the eyes nice and close to the front of the eye well but you do have to be careful about glare on certain angles.

 

Arietta (left) v. Volks (right)

 

I'm a big fan of these eyes, generally, I just wish they had a liiiittle bit more depth.

Wow, elsii, that would be the flattest dome I've ever seen! If it weren't for worrying about ruining a perfectly good pair of eyes then seeing domes that low then my 1st thought would be being tempted to try attaching my own cast domes using a high gloss translucent epoxy resin (like Gedeo Crystal Resin, Envirotex Lite Epoxy High Gloss or Little Windows Brilliant Resin). I've been experimenting with using pre-made glass domes & making my own cast coloured domes and lenses for making miniature doll goggles which I've been busy working on the past few months so this was my 1st thought as soon as I saw those practically non-existant domes!

  elsii said:

...

 

How old are your Arietta eyes? I just got some, and the dome on them doesn't look nearly as flat:

 

arietta eye dome by Yami Usagi, on Flickr

I unbox Kos-Mos today, and after changing her eyes to blue, i realize...eyes can be addicted It's great to know that Arietta has some limited girls' eyes, now if only they make Sasara's an Beatrice

 

Since we are talking about eyes, what would everyone recommend for putty? I know some people use eye putty and some use silicon earplug. I only have some white blu tack right now, though it worries me that on the instruction, they say something about possible oil bleed.

  Yami Usagi said:

  elsii said:

...

 

How old are your Arietta eyes? I just got some, and the dome on them doesn't look nearly as flat:

 

Not old at all, I got them about 4 weeks ago. I guess it makes sense there would be variations in the batches but yeah, your domes certainly look preferable. Are they both Arietta in that picture? I'd love to see them in-doll

  -Mei said:

...

I use the Mac's silicon earplugs you mentioned. I found them at the grocery store and got a few pairs for about $6. You only need half of a pair for one doll anyway. They hold eyes in the head just fine and don't do damage!

 

  elsii said:

...

 

How strange. Variations in style must be it then.

 

Yep. They're both Ariettas in the picture. I don't have a separate head to put them in at the moment, but the style is T06 in blue. Arietta has a sample picture of them in Melty~ http://ariettaproject.com/store/t06-c-1_70_73/t06-blue-p-267.html

Have to love silicone ear plugs - they're also my favourites for putting in eyes when it comes to my other dolls. I currently have an 6 pack of Surgipak Antinois swimming plugs I've been going through, but before that I used to buy up the single pair packs that Safrindoll http://www.safrindoll.comsell in bulk (they work out at 78c each when buying 10 pairs, so just $7.80 for a lot of 10 that can be brilliant when you're buying eyes at the same time). They used to carry more Ersa Floras, it was where I had my 1st pair of Ersa Flora eyes from - plus I've had some of their metallic "special order" eyes (from their Naruto Sharingan eye series) to play with (think these were the 1st "Anime Eyes" I ever had - bought back in around 2009-2010). Now that experience has taught me that I prefer the photographic quality of resin eyes over acrylics & glass I don't really shop there any more - so local chemist & swim / dive shop purchases of silicone plugs are the way to go.

 

Hmmm, well, as soon as the variety in Arietta dome heights goes I will let you know how mine go / will post pics when they arrive re. dome height. Guessing the dome height must vary based on their method of making them ie. possibly rather than a cast dome applied over the iris perhaps they do what some eye makers do and pop a blob of clear resin over the top of iris. Hence, why some handmade urethane eyes tend to have a lot of varieties & irregularities in dome height.

  katzilla said:

Now that experience has taught me that I prefer the photographic quality of resin eyes over acrylics & glass I don't really shop there any more - so local chemist & swim / dive shop purchases of silicone plugs are the way to go.

 

Interesting, can you go a bit more into details? From the name of "glass" sound, i always thought that it would bring a "clearer" look, but is it not the case? What about metallic eyes? While there are pictures online, i'm not sure how they would look in person, and what's the main difference. I would really appreciate if you can give me a lesson

  -Mei said:

  katzilla said:

Now that experience has taught me that I prefer the photographic quality of resin eyes over acrylics & glass I don't really shop there any more - so local chemist & swim / dive shop purchases of silicone plugs are the way to go.

 

Interesting, can you go a bit more into details? From the name of "glass" sound, i always thought that it would bring a "clearer" look, but is it not the case? What about metallic eyes? While there are pictures online, i'm not sure how they would look in person, and what's the main difference. I would really appreciate if you can give me a lesson

 

Not a problem ^^ I'll try not to make this too long.

 

Glass eyes are the oldest and most common type of eye you'll find out there. The techniques used there today for doll eyes are often the same or variations on techniques that have been used for years for blown glass porcelain doll eyes (such as this

). Alternatively, painted techniques can also be used such as are traditionally used for making false human eyes and taxidermy eyes. The techniques used in all these cases really suit making more natural looking eye colours and looks. A lovely range of colours are also available but they are limited to how the artisan is used to working with colouring glass in fine detail. Hence, you can see some lovely colours in glass eyes when it comes to the iris (coloured part of the eye), sclera (usually the white of the eye) and even the pupil (usually black part of the eye), even see some interesting media being included such as metallic glitter, metal leaf and glass sand (media that has to be able to withstand the high temperatures used in making glass eyes and still keep its qualities). With temperature being a major factor in how and what can be used to make glass eyes, this is the main reason why you often don't get the wide variation in colour and effects that you can find in cast urethane / resin or even some well made acrylic eyes. The effect of the heat often ends up deadening the intended colour and the overall look of the eye, which doesn't help when you're after a lovely bright fantasy or anime type look, so it's really hard to achieve really good bright luminescent colours in glass unless you are particularly skilled glass artisan.

 

There are many many techniques for making urethane / resin eyes but the main things that give urethane / resin eyes their advantage (and even acrylics & silicone eyes for that matter) over glass eyes is that you're not limited to having to use media that can withstand high temperatures. Hence, you see all sorts of things being cast into the iris of resin eyes and / or used for the pupil in cast urethane eyes, including powdered pearl pigment (such as pearlex) and superfine / ultrafine glitter, and even found objects such as rhinestones, crystals, & dried flowers. Best of all, when you mix and add colour to create the base colour of the iris then what you see is what you get in all its true intensity usually. You can also use printed paper, acetate, vinyl or other printed polymer sheet media for the iris (media which would usually burn, melt or warp when making glass eyes) which open the possibilities up for a wide variety of bold, graphic looking detailed irises. Also, there's a huge range of super clear glossy epoxy / clear casting resins out there which can be cast of applied over the iris to help create the look of the natural bulge the that are created by the lens, anterior cavity & cornea without loosing any detail or dulling the look of the media you've used to decorate the iris or changing its colour. Also, these glossy glear resins refract light differently to glass which give a much clearer, brighter look to the eye when they are used properly. Hence, why overall urethane / resin eyes can end up having a better overall colour and clarity effect than glass eyes when made really well.

 

When it comes to just plain metallic eyes, which tend to include mostly acrylics such as Ersa Flora eyes & Volks' metallic eyes (which I believe are made by Pabol eyes and are possibly from their "Meta" range, Pabol claiming to be one of Volks' main eye suppliers), plus other non-acrylic eyes such as Eyeco's silicone Metallic range, often flash photography or bright lighting makes them take look a little too un-naturally shiny which can put people off. This is more-so with the cheaper acrylic eyes and less so with silicone metallic eyes, I've found, just simply as silicone refracts light differently / softens the look when compared to acrylics (here's an example Also, the method and quality of printing used can effect how clear the detail is on these types of eyes (solvent printing and / or UV printing being the main methods of printing on metallic media with solvent printing being the most common one used). Metallic eyes are mainly a matter of preference - you either love them or you don't. There are other types of shiny media that you can print on which aren't quite as shiny or reflective when hit with bright light when compared to most cheap acrylic metallic eyes out on the market so there is the possibility of other options out there in the future (which is kind of what I've been playing with myself).

 

Hope that helps ^^ I've been playing with different types of eyes for plush toys, cloth dolls, soft sculpture and puppetry work since about the mid 90s (when I was in my mid teens) so I tend to be a bit picky about eyes myself, but everyone will have their own preferences in the end

Thank you, that was super helpful! I was only hoping for a few lines describing the difference between each type of eyes, not the actual production and physics behind it I think i will just stick to acrylic eyes for the color pop and clarity then