I… *attempted* an eye swap??

I was not made to be able to do this… I uhm… well! I tried! And I kinda laughed along as I failed so… ya! 

Little side note: this was all typed as I was doing it, (while I was waiting for water to boil or letting the water sit in the doll head... etc.) so the gray text will be my "reflection" thoughts, and my elaborating a few hours after the process, yes, my thumb still hurts.  Anything in pink is my initial take on the experience.  

We tried an eye swap!! 

Idk how it’s so easy for everyone else 😭😅😂

The struggle is genuinely real.  

So I don't know if y'all remember my doll bucket list from awhile ago, but for #5 we had "get AD's eye officially replaced".... sooo!! Here we are!  I'm going to attempt to replace it!  I have a spare doll head (she used to be... I think it was Lily? but I'll be using her for my next customization project sooo stayed tuned for that!  It will be beautifully chaotic... if it turns out).  Anyway.  The Lily head has brown eyes, and I need a brown eye for AD.  So ya! 

 

I'll be replacing the right eye (it's the one that is broken and all wonky, so tbh even if I didn't need to give him a brown eye, I would still need to replace it eventually).  We're leaving the left eye as is because it is such a pretty pretty blue.  

Anyway.  Let's get started, ya?  So we've boiled the water and all that fun stuff... fast forward idk how long and... ya... it was really slow going.  

And OMG I got one!! *me excited bc I got an eye out.  Like honey, it's only downhill from there*

I loved the video I watched where they were like "ya, I let the head sit for about two minutes..." 

Lady.  Please.  

Although I learned that if I have the head sit for about ten minutes???  Makes it REALLY easy to get the eyes out. 

*I did take a picture here, but Lily genuinely looked so creepy, I did not want to traumatize y'all with that.*

Now on to the other doll head 😅😂

Yes, I sign all my dolls 

The joy with this one, is his ears are pierced... but the holes are weird, like out of all the doll earrings and human earrings I have... none of them fit perfectly in the holes, it's always really loose.  So yes.  We had water spilling out the entire time.  And I had to reheat his head at LEAST five times.  

*three towels later* 

I never ever ever want to have to do this ever again *facts right there, omg*

And I finally got the eye in!!! 

*no, I did not photograph it.  The stress was too high to remember to do something like photograph it*

But I messed up… idk how but it was all wonky like the eye sunk back too far and disconnected somehow... 😭😭😭 sooooooo I gotta remove the eye and we’re back to square one. 😐 yippie 

And.  I genuinely broke the eye.

Which is why, we have backups!

Since I took both brown eyes out of the Lily head... I just ended up using the left eye.  Which, I hadn't wanted to do since the eyelashes got all bent... but desperate times y'all.  

*I can't imagine having to do this process where I'm swapping both eyes.  That would be horrific.  Thank you AD, for only needing one eye, bc o.mg.* 

I'm really sorry I didn't take more pictures, this was stressful for me.  

So yes, I actually did break the eye!  The silver on the back came off, and idk if the plastic melted or what, but it's kinda deformed.... Which is disappointing because I was considering using the extra brown eye and the spare blue eye for my next customization project (that way I wouldn't have to buy new eyes), but, not only did the brown eye break... the blue eye which I took from AD is actually... it's just crusty and broken and gross (idk what the previous owners did to it)... so.... I was looking at Etsy... and *sigh* I think I'm going to need to buy some DollofaKind eyes for my next repaint project.  Which I'm a little bummed about because... I genuinely just love AG eyes?  Like don't get me wrong, Etsy sellers are great.  But their eyes just look... can I say too fake?  They're just not pretty to me.  And the eyelashes remind me of Our Generation eyelashes, which just... huge no.  (However, DollofaKind is cheaper than buying AG eyes off Ebay... so I think for the sake of my bank account I'mma just suck it up).  But that's all in the future!  (Also... DollofaKind has golden serpent eyes???  Which like, yes please.  The fantasy romance writer in me?  Screaming.  Like if I had a dark dark brown wig, a dude with a bunch of tattoos and serpent eyes??  Like... yes please.  Anyway!) We're focusing on AD right now.  Have I ever mentioned that his name is actually Adiel?  I got it from the book "Indian and the Cupboard" which was one of my brother's favorites when he was little.  (I'm so good at getting sidetracked, I don't even remember what I was talking about).    

Anyway!

Second attempt at putting an eye in!  

I was... actually pretty successful!  I am not going to tell you how long it took me to position the eye, but it's pretty straight! It's kinda loose and I can pull it to one side or the next, I honestly think it might have come out of the socket a bit (good glory this all sounds so wrong), BUT!  95% of the time it's positioned correctly.  To be blunt, I'm just happy the eye opens and closes.  His blue eye doesn't do that.  (Again.  idk what his previous owners did to him)

Final thoughts! 

The eye swap took me an hour.  Uhm.  But it was my very first time, and it was actually so satisfying when I was finally able to get it!

No I do not recommend ever doing it.  But yes, I am already planning my next one.  Because I am making Porsha.  Mhm.  I'm excited. (Although I'm honestly considering changing her name... idk yet...)

Not expecting it to go well... but just like with AD, I'm learning.  And if I'm successful, it'll be a cool little skill set to have.  

                    So this is how he looks now:                         And this was before the eye swap:

 

*you genuinely can't even tell that there's a difference 😭😭😭... except well... I know, and the pride that comes with looking at him now is awesome for me*

I mean I don't cringe at the painted eye anymore!  It's actually... well... official!! 

Honestly, just knowing that it's official and not paint makes me so so so so so happy.  

And ya!  Thanks for sticking with me, I know this post was a tornado of random.