Continuing my adventures in eye painting, it is with a heavy heart that I admit that I... failed.
After destroying one set of eyes, I ordered a second set of eyes from an eBay seller. Those eyes went on an adventure. They were guaranteed to arrive on December 8th, but inexplicably went back to Tennessee where they were shipped from. At another point I saw an update that claimed they had made it to Miami. I do not know why this happened but it is maybe one of the funniest things thatâs ever happened to me. I canât even be mad about it, shipping was free and to be fair, the seller shipped it right after I paid for it. I received them December 21st.
Once the eyes arrived I realized that these eyes are different from pre-Mattel eyes.
They have a small piece of plastic in the back that helps hold in the weight. Taking the weight out was ridiculously difficult and the piece of plastic did break. Iâve read that this may affect how the eyes close when the whole thing is put back together but I never got that far so I canât say for sure.
Removing the paint in these eyes was the most difficult thing I have ever done. I donât know if itâs because the paint is newer, or if Mattel uses a different formulation, or if itâs because in the older eyes the paint was already beginning to peel, but the paint would not come out.
I fussed. I swore. I dabbed gently with acetone, super glued a nail to the back and tried to pull out the paint, scraped with a craft knife (which made some nice cuts in the eyes) and finally tried heating a hot glue stick and pulling it out when cooled. This also didnât work. I ripped the glue stick in half, melted eyelashes on one eye, my hand went numb (thanks carpal tunnel) and eventually I was left with an eye full of hot glue that I couldnât get out. Â
When I wasnât working on the eyes, my cats, who are terrible, stole them from me repeatedly. They knocked over the container the eyes were in, popping it open and spilling parts across the floor. I am still finding eye parts under my dishwasher on the opposite side of the house.
Above is the cleanest I was able to get the eyes. I did try just painting over it with new paint and allowing it to dry, hoping that the two paints would stick together and I could then peel it off in one big piece. This, amazingly, didnât work.
At this point I gave up and decided I was just going to order eyes in the colors I wanted. Â This meant ordering two new sets of eyes. Â This is fine, I told myself angrily. Â This is fine.
In summary, here are my tips for repainting doll eyes!
Use old eyes! Eyes that are silvered are defective already, the paint is beginning to pull away and that makes it easier to remove.
Peel as much paint out as you can. If youâre able to use tweezers and pull it off in one chunk, thatâs ideal. Otherwise, heating the tip of a stick of hot glue and sticking it to the paint, letting it cool briefly and peeling it out seems to help. Others have had great success. I let mine cool for an hour or more and that was when I ripped the stick in half trying to peel it out.
If youâre careful, confident, and you have a steady hand, using a toothpick dipped in acetone will help break down stubborn residue stuck in the crevices.
Test your paint colors in advance. I did swatches on a sheet of white printer paper and it really helped see how the colors would dry down. They do dry a lot darker than they look when wet, so keep that in mind.
Use at least two coats, making sure they dry fully in-between coats.
Itâs unfortunate that I ruined my first set of PM eyes because I think otherwise they would have been ideal for this project. On the other hand, I learned a lot and someday I will try again!
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