The conversation the other day about making eyes got me to toying with it this morning for a while. In another thread I mentioned using a segmented grub body to do a slight dip into an iris color then dot it with a Sharpie pen. It can be done.
I've done a few dips here using a white body as the base color. I used an orange dip, one cut off and ready to apply while the others are still attached to the body. The pupil was dotted on using a marking pen but the felt tip was not real damp so the dots are less than round in the pic and the intent can be gotten. Getting this far isn't all that tough, but I do see some limits.
I don't think it will matter much how the base color comes about with regard to actually using a mold or dipping like I have done here, the eyes are going to have pretty great depth from the bottom to the top. As shown here, the cut eye is almost better than 1/16" from back to front. If an eye of this type is to be used for frogs or lizards where an indent is available for eyes to help in setting the eye back a bait will look pretty natural. I tried a couple eyes using different glues and both pretty much showed that it will be necessary to cover dip them. At least I think they'll need it. On a bait the size of a small fry 1.75" the eyes even without a cover dip are darned big and bulbous....the bait looked like a canoe with sponsons attached to it, so that won't cut in my book.
As for a mold, I can see issues there possible. Small volumn molds need some real soolid clamping to avoid flashing. It isn't a matter of too little clamping its just a matter of physics and too much pressure being put into a an area with very little space. The injection pressure used for baits the size of a nano fry will raise exponentially in a mold for eyes with such tiny volumnes in each cavity.
My standard practice is when making baits in new color schemes or new baits period is to shoot four moldsful of the same bait. 1 complete stinger will get eyes, the other threee hit the box as is. If the eyes show a definite advantage I can always dip in the box and add eyes to some when I need to. I think I have about 6000 eyes in three colors and two sizes so I'm good for a while. And I don't mind cover dipping eyes. I don't shoot frogs or lizards because I don't chase bass. Still, making eyes of some fashion for frogs and lizards should be checked out further. These boards have a lot of creativity in the members and I'm sure that the will will find a way.
