Sunday, January 9, 2011

DIY Eyes For BJD Using UV Nail Gel.

I decided to try to make my own eyes for my BJD sculpt.
I may try a few different mediums and techniques until I get one I'm happy with. Here is the first try. I used UV Gel for nail extensions to make little eyeball blobs. I kind of like these. We'll see if I can improve on them a bit.

Here is what I did.

First I stuck some nail form foils to a sheet of scrap paper. I figured this would keep them flatter than if I just left them on the roll.

I made blobs of white gel using the tip of a knitting needle (It's what I had lying around) and cured them in the UV light.


Then I made dots of dark green and light green onto the white blobs and cured this also.


Here I tried a dot of blue in the middle of each eye. I liked it but it wasn't dark enough. I cured them again.

Here is a side shot so you can see the profile of the eyes. They're quite 3D already.


Here they are with a coat of top coat UV gel on them. This should seal the colour in an make them have more depth and shine.
I cured them again.


I cured them in the light one final time after I flipped each eye over. Because the white gel is opaque the UV light doesn't get through to the middle of each eye, flipping them over allows them to cure on the bottom too.


Here are two of the eyes. I didn't match them for size but they look pretty good. I think I'll have to experiment with this technique some more. It has promise.