I am not one to really mimic nature. The original form built by Mother is majestic, beautiful, extremely complex and outside-the-box. Yet here I am attempting to make a pair of eyes for a sculpture, and need to rummage around in what I have on hand to create them. I live in a place where a 24 mile round trip is required to purchase basic hardware goods. So I’m a bit unwilling to use fossil fuel to purchase some epoxy to make a pair of eyes. A search through all of my stuff at home revealed a jar of clear gel topcoat hanging out in a drawer.

So, first I outline a large set of eyes using permanent markers and color the outer ring using colored pencils. I seal them using modge podge and then drop a single bead of aceylic gel right onto the “iris” of the drawing. This allows for a transparent thickness over the central portion of the eye and diffused the iris a bit along the edge. I think this gives it a bit of a more “natural” look. After drying, I build up the surrounding eye area with another controlled blob of gel. I will continue to build up the layers over the period of a day until I have a nice convex shape. Stinks to high heaven (I don’t like the smell of nailpolish), soI need to put them outside to dry. Will post the finished product when done!