While people’s eyes may be the windows of their souls, Merikay’s animals’ eyes help them capture people’s hearts and admiration. She makes the eyes for all of our animals except the Dragons. This page describes how.

In the early years of her craft, Merikay experimented with several kinds of commercially available eyes, but found none that gave her creatures the life she wanted. Now she casts Plaster of Paris into a variety of half-dome sizes that she calls “eye blanks”.

In the picture at right, the white tray is an artist’s paint pallette that’s the mold for the smallest eye blanks. The yellow tray is a ping-pong ball carrier that’s used to cast medium eyes. The brownish things in the right background are handmade molds for eye blanks for the largest animals, which Merikay made by painting many layers of latex mold-making compound onto various-sized balls. In the left foreground are various sizes of eye blanks.

Actually this narrative is a little out of order, in that several images in the “preceding” Sculpture and Horn and Antler pages showed sculptures with eye blanks attached. Merikay does this by glueing the blanks onto the appropriate more-or-less-flat places on the sculptures, and then filling in around them with paper maché.

After any horns or antlers are completed, and the sculpture has been painted to match its dominant color, our artist sands the eye blanks using several grades of sandpaper, from coarse to very fine. Then she paints the eyes with up to five layers of acrylic paint. The image at left shows various sandpaper and a brush, with which she has painted the first coat on the upper eye. The final coat of paint dries for at least 24 hours before the eyes are coated.

Epoxy resin, applied with a plumber’s acid brush, is the key ingredient in Merikay’s animals’ eyes. It gives them a gloss and depth that is very appealing. In the background of the picture at right, is a Buffalo whose eyes were coated earlier. Paper cups, taped over its eyes, protect the epoxy from dust in the air while it sets.

Many of our animals have commercial eyelashes, and recent designs have eyelids as well, to enhance their depth. In the picture to the left, Merikay has glued a folded piece of satin under the eye of the Elk to create the lower lid, and she has glued an eyelash to another folded piece of satin that forms the upper lid. The skin is then worked closely around and over these eyelids, making them a subtle touch.

The next part of our “How They’re Made” story shows how Merikay covers the sculpture with Man-Made Fur.