These eyes are totally resistant to acetone as they are crystal! They are beautifully clear even without a layer of varnish but the varnish does make the eye more realistic as it leaves it slightly shiny like a real eye.

1. You will need the eyes you made earlier, a glue that is HEAT RESISTANT or the eyes will have a yellowish tint. It should be a glue that is made to be used on glass and plastic and some swarovski crystal cabochons in an appropriate size, mine are 2.4mm.

2. When I buy my cabochons they have a foil backing, ideally it would be good to buy clear ones with no backing at all but these are hard to come by unless you can afford to buy then in huge quantities. It is easy to remove the backing though as long as you make sure you don’t buy crystal AB cabs. Plain silver foil ones are best.

3. If you need to remove the backing just soak the crystals in a mixture of apple cider vinegar and salt for a few (minimum of 2) weeks. The backing comes off or gets loose during that time and you can just wipe it off when you take the crystals out of the mixture. The solution also cleans the crystals so that they sparkle!

4. This is what they will look like…

5. If you feel it necessary you could paint your tiny eyes with a little highlight to add some extra dimension but they should have good variation in colour already. If you do, use a very tiny brush, remember that everything is magnified under the lens.

6. If you are using the cane method then leave them attached to the baking dish so that they are easy to work with.

7. Apply a bit of glue to the top of your eye, not too much but not too little either so that the crystal will stick well.

8. Apply the crystal and press it a little to ensure it is well attached and that there are no air bubbles. Make sure the pupil is in the centre of the dome.

9. Here are some cane eyes with the crystal attached.

10. Sometimes even when you have been careful you might still get bubbles and they will only show up on camera so take a photograph to make sure that your eyes are clean. You can always reuse your crystals if you don’t like the eyes you have made, they are glued quite tightly if you use a good glue but with a little prizing they will come off and will just need a clean in some acetone before they can be used again.

11. Here are some other colours…

To go back to the Cane Method, click here.
To go back to the Marble Method, click here.
To embed your eyes, click here.