IMPORTANT: Eye Sockets on PYO – READ BEFORE PAINTING

From Susie:
We thought we had solved the tight eye socket problem, however it has not gone away altogether. All of the glass eyes are not exactly the same size, and all of the eye sockets are not exactly the same size, making it possible for you to have difficulty (especially) with the Metallic Teal, Metallic Periwinkle, and Medium Blue eyes fitting into the PYO #X550 Dragon and #X925 Ki-rin. Before you begin painting, you might want to try the eyes out in your PYO to make sure they fit, and when painting take care to keep paint thin inside the socket and on eyelid edges so as not to make the socket even smaller. You may expand the eye socket by scraping it out a little to allow the eye to fit better. If you have eyes that do not fit, we will be glad to send you a new thinner pair in a different color. We are attempting to have some thinner eyes available in the colors mentioned, however we haven’t got them yet. And if you are ordering one of the three problem colors, you can order a second color of eyes as a fall back color in case your first choice does not fit. Please contact me if you are having a horrible time with them. We apologize for this inconvenience.

From Jennifer:
Now that PYOs are coming without their eyes already glued in, some people are experiencing problems with eyes getting stuck in the sockets (before you are ready for them to be there permanently!).
Even once Windstone has new, thinner eyes, there is always a chance for this to happen. If you are like me, you like to test the eyes in the PYO to see how they look before you’re finished. Or perhaps you want to test different colors with your paint scheme. All very understandable! But Windstone products are still hand made, even though they are cast from the same molds, and there can be tiny variances in them even on the best day. There is always a chance that your eye will get stuck in the socket, and let me tell you I have sheared the faces off of PYOs in the past just trying to get a stuck eye out!

Some guidelines to help you!

To test an eye:

– If you want to test an eye to see how it works, try simply holding it up in place, without actually placing it into the socket. I use a pair of long needle nose pliers do do this so my fingers aren’t in the way.
– I have gone so far as to cut a round piece of paper, paint it quickly with the color, and put that in the eye socket to see what it looks like. Paper is easy to fish out again!
– If the eye seems tight going in, you probably cannot get it out again even using the methods below. MAKE SURE YOU ARE OKAY WITH THAT EYE COLOR FOREVER!

If you have an eye stuck:

– Don’t panic! And don’t try to dig it out with force. This could break the Windstone. I speak from experience! Wedging a toothpick in there to try and wiggle it out is a bad idea.
– Try rotating your PYO every which way while gently wiggling or shaking the piece. I will often rotate the PYO upside down and tilt it every way while gently tapping at the eye with my finger now and then. Often this works to roll an eye out.
– Use a piece of modeling clay or something similarly ‘sticky’ and soft (blue sticky tak stuff would work too.. or.. bubble gum! Don’t get this on the PYO though!) and smoosh it against the eye, then gently lift the eye out. You may have to do it at a strange angle, such as pulling ‘down’ then ‘up’. It can take some fussing. (thanks for the tip, Bodine!)
– If none of those work, take a deep breath and go have some comfort food. Does the eye look so bad? Hmm. It might be there for good…

If you have an eye that won’t go into the socket at all:

– If the eye is just too large or is somehow malformed to where it won’t fit into the socket, please contact Susie at Windstone Editions! We will replace the eye for you. You shouldn’t have to force it.

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Thank you for the tip! 🙂

I also recommend white glue over super glue for the reasons mentioned above. The official pieces I’ve done for Windstone use white glue to glue in the eyes.