My Girls

5 Types of Eyes for Ball Jointed Dolls

untitled 1 5 Types of Eyes for Ball Jointed Dolls Jamie Chan

Eyes are the window to a doll’s soul

Let’s talk about the beautiful things in my life right now!
You guys know how obsessed I am with eyes in general. Reading eyes is kind of like a very bad habit of mine so the next part will be a little freaky but I shall let the pictures speak for itself(:
A bit of background information would be that there are about 5 basic groups of eyes. Each has its own range and ability to reflect light and bring the doll to life. Each has their own unique price tag and as always, this hobby is limited to how much you have in your bank account(:

 

Acrylic Eyes

For every doll owner, their first few pair of eyes would almost always be acrylic.
Types of eyes
From left to right:
12mm melted grey acrylics (Julia’s default)
16mm blue acrylic (Kiyomi’s default)
16mm grey-black acrylic (Juliet’s default)
Total cost: Around 10USD
Acrylics are nice and cheap but they are, after all, acrylic. They can’t really pull off the depth I want to make a doll ‘look into your soul’.

 

Crystal Acrylic Eyes

This is where crystal acrylic comes into the picture to give the eyes a little more clarity.
Crystal acrylic eyes
From top to bottom right:
16mm Cobalt blue crystal acrylics (Chiriko’s default)
14mm Blue-grey crystal acrylic (Chiriko’s character pair)
16mm blue crystal acrylic (brand new >.> )
Total cost: Around 25USD

 

Glass Eyes

I really like crystal acrylics. In fact, I would rather get crystal acrylics than normal acrylics as with a little bit of DI, they can look pretty amazing in images.
Crystal acrylics are sparkly and nice but they do not reflect light as nicely as Glass.
Glass eyes
From left to right:
14mm/16mm? Volks HG purple/blue? glass eyes
16mm Volks HG blue [Olivia Morgan’s default] (Juliet’s Character pair)
14mm China duo tone glass eyes
Total cost: Around 75USD

 

Silicon Eyes

Glass eyes are pretty but they are not as realistic as silicon. These two silicons are my first pair of silicon eyes and I love the depth they give to my girls! Gorgeous gorgeous pairs<3
Silicon Eyes
From top to bottom:
17mm Mystic world Afghan eyes
15mm Mystic World German eyes
Total cost: Around 50USD
Silicon gives a lot of depth but sucks at capturing and reflecting light in photography.
Although they are amazingly realistic in a doll, one of their bad points would be that they attract dust like crazy.

 

Urethane Eyes

Next up is the most expensive one out of the 5 groups of eyes.
Yes. Its Urethane 8D
Urethane Eyes
From top to bottom:
16mm Enchanted doll black Urethane (Kiyomi’s Character pair)
16mm Enchanted doll Blue Urethane
Total cost: Around 110USD
Just by looking at the amount of light reflected, you know that urethane beats all other kinds of eyes hands down. The depth they give to a doll is so beautiful! Even in the black pair, you can actually see the colour reflected when you look really closely! Urethane looks gorgeous in and out of images without any DI done and they are so beautiful! Well given the price tag, it better be beautiful T_T
Blue eyes
Yea. I am pretty obsessed with blue eyes as well. I have 7 pairs of blue eyes which is half of my ‘eye collection’ and at least one from each category(:
Eye family
Yes. I have 13 pairs of eyes and three girls(:
Hope you enjoyed what my random mind churned out at 3.26 am in the morning.
Good afternoon people in Seattle 8D

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.