For artists and collectors sponsored by Intercal...your mohair supplier and Johnna's Mohair Store
I know you've posted this somewhere but I can't seem to find the exact posting....
How did you say you did the cording around your eyes...I remember reading it before but can't find it. I guess I'm asking specifically how do your secure it inside the head....I love your bears eyes and would like to try it or come up with my own variation...
Sorry I'm not very original...but I can copy copy copy!!!
Everyone who makes bears is copying. Copying the first teddy bear.
I use an awl to poke a hole in the head at each end of the cording; fray check it; insert cording at one end into first hole; drape across eye; insert cording into other hole; glue down.
Voila!
Shelli - another question, do you prefer the "flat" cording or the "round". I have the round but can't seem to visualize how this will work in my head... if you dont mind answering that is
I mind terribly; you're a skunk for asking. Silly girl.
I use round cording. Just... 'cause. It was there on the day I first investigated this over a year ago. Call me practical.
If you use superglue -- I use a gel type -- you can adhere this rather easily to either glass eye, or mohair/backing, or both.
thank you... I was thining I need to glue somthing somewhere or it would roll around... I will have to try this on a test head Thank you for the advice
Kim- you are such a cutie! ;)
Dilu
I dont want to be pesty
Thanks...I knew it was something like that I just couldn't quite remember...
I didn't know superglue came in a gel form....hmmmm I guess I should pay more attention....nah!!!
I like to learn new things and learn how to improve
Be careful not to glue your fingers to eachother LMAO
I tried to use cording for the eye rims and could not get the cording to stick to the eye. However, I did successfully glue the cording to my fingers. I haven't tried it since.
Sandi
Sandi ~ Soo funny! Your post reminds me of a picture my husband took of me in our kitchen. I was heading out and a fingernail came off. I tried to glue it back on but only succeeded in gluing my hand to the counter.
Seriously, the glue thing is what will kill me I'm sure if/when I try eyelids. Maybe a little gel glue on the end of a pin or something would work. Hmm ....
Thanks for the mental picture and the chuckle!
Deb
LMAO - I knew I wasnt the only one! it is scary when fingers get stuck together! i panic!:lol:
Everyone who makes bears is copying. Copying the first teddy bear
Isn't that true lol. My own feelings are that even if you are 'inspired' by someone elses technique, it always comes out with you in it. Like if I see something I like it will jumble in my head for a while and pop out with my interpretation of it. I think it is very hard to copy someone exactly even if you set out to do it.
love that you share Shelli...have you thought of writing a book. Think you would sell millions :)
hugs sarah
Gosh I am affraid to ask...what kind of cording. I live here in Hawaii and we have one craft store...Ben Franklin..WOW!!
Shana
Shana, I was asking about the leather cording Shelli uses on her awesome eyes...I think in an earlier post which I still can't find...that she uses 1mm or 2mm leather cording.
If and when I finally locate the specific post I was looking for I'll attach a link.
Shantell
Sandi you made me laugh also! in 25 yrs of working in manuf. i NEVER glued myself to anything..the first time i took someones advice and glued my disks to their hardware was my downfall! i didnt take into acct when i was holding it waiting for the glue to dry that it would follow the threads of the screw down to my hand! hubby wasnt home and i couldnt unstick my fingers!! no polish remover in the house at all!!:):):) deb
Deb,
How did you get unstuck. Did you have to wait for hubby to come home?
Sandi
I always have super glue remover gel on hand.
When I worked at a Urgent Care facility we had a patient come in with his hand wrapped in towel. He was hiding his embarrassment of having glued his hand to a coffee cup he was trying to repair. oops..tee hee
Blimey - i wondered what you were going to say then :redface:
Penny
did you guys know they use a form of super glue in surgery now?
And acetone or nail polish remover will save you----unstick you.....
Dilu
LOL!!! I needed the chuckle!! Deb, how did you get unstuck?
I noticed in the craft store today that they make a gel superglue that doesn't stick your fingers to your project... instantly. (So I'm guessing you have 60 seconds to let go before it's too late??) I saw it at Jo Ann's for those of you with one near by. It's probably other places too.
Sandi,
I couldn't get the glue to stick to the eye on my first try either. I finally figured out that the eye was too grubby from being handled to take the bond. So I cleaned the eye with an alcohol swab, and the glue held! My only other problem was general clumsiness. It took a few tries to get the whole thing coordinated.
Our vet once mended a tortoise's broken shell with superglue!! It had broken when run over by a car.
Eileen
You guys are cracking me up.
Actually, I never put two and two, together, on this one.
Before I set my eyes I clean them up with nail polish remover. There's usually some gunk or fingerprints on them so I use a Q-tip saturated in remover and go over the exposed areas. Perhaps that's part of why they take the glue so well. ???
Then... yes... I poke an awl hole; put a dab of glue on the tip of a piece of cording (if I'm using the cording method); insert that into the awl hole. Then... poke another awl hole; trim cording to size, making sure to have enough to insert into head; put a dab of glue on the tip of the piece of cording; insert that into the second awl hole.
THEN... very gently pull the arc of cording, with ends inserted and glued, down and away from the eye, and run the tiniest bead of superglue gel across the glass eye itself, where the cording will be adhered.
Then... VERY carefully, without touching the glue (Sandi -- :)) , press the cording into place and hold for about five seconds. Sometimes I use tweezers or a pin head to do this to avoid the glueing-the-cording-to-myself problem.
Hope this helps!
PS You can also use elastic cording for eyelids, in one long continuous piece. You still need to poke good sized awl holes, but it's psychologically reassuring to know the lids are stitched through the head. However, I find the elastic method more challenging, personally, and like the leather look better (the elastic has little ribs and a certain sheen to it), so I usually use leather.