Cracked/Disintegrated Old Green Dragon Eyes

Jennifer wrote:

Even if they can’t replace the eyes for you, Windstone should at least be able to tell you the exact size for those eyes. I have a good number of glass taxidermy eyes here (I do dabble in taxidermy, but I also make little bird sculptures), if you want to let me know what size you need, I can see if I have any that are the same color as the eyes in my old green male, should be the same.

Hi Jennifer!! The lovely Ms. Melody responded with the eye size, 11mm. I have been following your work for quite some time now, and have always admired your creativity ♥ if you have the time, and have any similarly colored eyes laying about, I would be curious to see them 🙂

Melody wrote:

That old girl is at least 30 years old, maybe older! Those are the old type of eyes we used when we first started Windstone. The very first Windstones had glass eyes that were painted with enamel paint. We soon found that the enamel paint pulled off of the backs after a few years.
Now we only use real glass paint that is fired onto the eyes.

I have a couple possible solutions, but they all hinge on removing the eyes.
Removing the eyes is the first hurdle. This may not be easy, and it is very easy to damage the dragon. Please get advice from a forum member that has done this surgery before!
If you CAN remove the eyes, you could clean off the old paint with acetone, and repaint them with gold enamel paint, (and black , if the pupil is damaged) This will restore them to their original condition.

Then, step 2…
I haven’t tried this myself yet, but this is one suggestion somebody gave us for solving this problem: If you can glue a bit of thin Ultraswede fabric between the dragon and the eye, (if it will fit) that would allow the eye to shift a little in the socket without shearing the paint off.

Or, another way around this is to carefully place glue only on the edges of the eyes, so that the glue doesn’t touch the enamel painted backs.

OR- We can send you a pair of new eyes that won’t fall apart no matter what, of the type we use now. However our glass-painted eyes won’t match the color of those old, golden-amber ones.

OR- you can replace them with other available eyes. They are 11 mm .

I would check with Tohickon to see how the color has been added to the eyes, if they use enamel paint, that too may come off.

This might be one of the veryfirst Windstone dragons we sold! See how badly she is painted on the underside? I didn’t know what I was doing.

Hi Ms. Melody! Thanks so much for taking the time to respond to my plea ♥ The amber/gold really resonates with me, and so far the only eyes that come close to their liveliness, are some of the dichroic eyes that I’ve seen in Emperor, Old Warrior, and Secret Keeper test paints. Would you guys happen to have any in 11mm? I’ll check in with Tohickon in the meantime about what methods they use for their eyes.

I’ve only ever removed a cracked eye from a GB Colt once, and that involved soaking the eye socket with warm water to dissolve the glue enough to wiggle it out. Super scary business, as I feared destroying the piece the entire time, but it all worked out fine. However, with the age of this Mama Dragon, I’m worried it might just break her to do that. Though, I was able to scrape out the decimated eye pieces from the non-display side without harming her.

The way she had been painted was one of the reasons which prompted me to snap her up when I saw her! I love the “weathered” look she has, it makes her realistic, in a way. Very different from the more recent Old Green dragons.

PrairieVixen wrote:

Give Tony at Tohickon a call (or send him an email). If you’re able to get the eyes out, you could send him one and I’d pretty much guarantee you he can make you a custom pair to match identically. 🙂

Thanks for the info, PrairieVixen!! I’m most likely going to end up at least having to try to wiggle out the cracked eye, so if I do manage to pry it out, I’m seriously considering giving Tohickon a shot 🙂