Make custom eyes with UV Resin

I figured out a new process for making eyes, and since it's not too complicated I created a basic video tutorial to explain-

 

 

It's my first time making a tutorial video so apologies for some of the camera work, I'm still learning!

Thanks for posting this! I really want to try this out. I tried to get into phone repair a couple years back and that left me with a UV nail dryer that I don't use. Now I can have a use for it again!

 

I thought the video was pretty good, the instructions were really clear, but one question- does the lighter just help to even out the resin and rid it of small bubbles? I admittedly haven't worked with resin yet, so I was a bit unclear on what exactly it was for? And do you find that it's neccessary to the process?

 

Now I just have to finally stop being lazy and design some eyes. While I do love high dome eyes, I also love how shiny and bright yours looked too despite being flatter.

Ooh thanks so much for this and your previous eye-making tutorials! I was interested in doming UV resin on doll eyes. I've tried something similar with a white apoxie base I 'sculpted'(if you can call slightly flattening a ball sculpting lol), some spare eye designs I cut out, and easycast resin. As you'd expect the resin was more of a glaze and it was very, very flat. xD I still liked them though, and it was way quicker and easier than getting the ratio of resin parts perfect and waiting for the layers of resin to cure. I think I may need to get a lamp sometime to try this out, but does it have to be a 'UV' lamp specifically? Just wondering because I've been seeing LED nail lamps for cheaper sometimes and was hoping I could use those instead.

 

I do have questions about resin on the printed eyes though if you don't mind! Sometimes I notice discoloration and little almost metallic flecks on the eyes I made. Do you know what could cause it? I'm assuming it may be because of air bubbles or pockets in the resin, or maybe because I didn't coat my printed eyes with anything? I had my designs printed on glossy photo paper btw.. not sure if that changes anything. xD Also, do you notice a significant amount of magnification of your eye print in the finished eyes when you use the uv resin? I forgot to take that into account so now almost all of the pairs of eyes I made are too big. Only the smallest eyes designs and the flattest eye above are okay. xD I'm still a resin casting noob so I'm probably doing several things wrong. The possibilities are endless though, which is really fun.

Thanks guys! Glad it's helpful ^_^

 

Noxxbunny - oops! I cut the bit where I explained the lighter, but yes- it gets rid of small bubbles near the surface. It's very handy!

 

elianti - LED lamps will work if you're using a resin designed to go with them- not sure if the regular UV set resin works for that or not. I got my UV lamp for around $15 on ebay and it works pretty well so far.

 

Do the metallic bits on your eyes look like a sort of holographic effect, like a weird light refraction? I think that's due to air trapped between the design and resin. I apply a thin layer of resin to my eye designs when I'm adding them to the pupil part, that seems to help. Sometimes though it seems that weather can cause this to happen, I have the same problem often in the winter but not in summer. Maybe curing under pressure would remove the air.

 

Also, one nice thing about this process is that there's a bit of doming, but not so much that the design is hugely magnified. It takes some trial and error to figure out the right design size, but once you've got it then you have a template for all future eye designs ^_^

Oh, $15 on eBay isn't bad at all! Thanks for the tip. A lot of the lamps I find in stores here are LED ones in the $30+ range. xD

 

Yes, that sort of holographic effect is what I mean! It only shows when viewed from certain angles. It's kind of cool but it's not really what I wanted. ^^" I did put a dab of resin before placing the eye designs down, but perhaps I didn't press down hard enough to get out all of the air..

 

For me, it seems like I needed to print the design one size smaller than expected(I used one of Parabox's images as a starting reference) the to get the size I originally wanted, at least with the the previous eye-making method. I haven't fully tested it with another batch though because I'm kinda lazy to resize my designs and have them printed, welp.

Thanks for the video

Will have to give it ago one day..