The Eye Swap (Part 2 of my newest project)

So in part one of this project I introduced the girls and told you what I am doing with them! You can see all that here : Part 1

WARNING: If you don't want to see dolls with half their wigs off or without wigs entirely or without eyes you might want to skip this post.

This is all about the eye swap....I did not walk away from this unscathed. List of injuries! 1. I cut my fingernail about halfway down to my nail bed.  2. My legs were covered in bruises and 3. Well this:

Eye swapping is HARD. I decided to do the boiled water method but first the wigs had to come off!



To take off a wig all you need is non-acetone fingernail polish remover, and eyedropper and a spoon!

You just use the eyedropper to get the polish remover under the edge of the wig, wait a little bit and then use the spoon to help pry it off!

First up! Doll B:

That's her wig about half way through! Both of these wigs where very hard to take off. They used some really good glue!

After about an hour of applying the nail polish remover and prying with the spoon that ratty old wig was finally off! Here is the new wig!

And then I did a quick (read over an hour) rinse and repeat with Doll A

And done!

So as I said earlier I decided to do the boiled water method to do the eye swap. It's pretty simple, you boil water and pour it into the head and then let it sit for a few minutes, dump out the water and pop out the eye.  Sounds easy right?

My set up:

I didn't get the water hot enough at first. So I struggled for about half an hour before I threw my wooden spoon, yelled, got up and walked away. When they said boiling water they mean it! And it takes about three minutes of sitting for the vinyl to be soft enough to pop out the eyes.

So after I cooled down a bit and looked around on the internet some I tried again! Man if you get that water hot enough the eyes just come right out! Disturbing picture a head!

Ha ha or two heads.

And then it was time to SWAP. Finally! This is the really really hard part. I started with Doll A because she's staying with me and I don't really care if her eyes aren't perfect! I boiled more water, softened the vinyl and put the eyes in! But then I had to get them straight and that is darn near impossible. In fact I had such a hard time with this that I messed up the eye lashes on both dolls. SIGH. But after a whole lot of struggling.....

I did go ahead and put her wig back on for now. It's not glued on but I didn't want her sitting here bald until her wig arrives.

And here is Doll B

I mentioned in my previous post that I was worried about the cloudiness of the blue eyes. Well I tried a few things but finally I just put a clear coat of fingernail polish on them. It's not perfect but it looks nice enough for me!

Hopefully I'll be able to show you a finished Doll A within the next couple of weeks. I'm just waiting on her wig and an outfit! Doll B I won't show you until my friend gets her but I put her wig on the other night and I have to say she is gorgeous! I'm very happy!

Until next time!