As a maker of prosthetic eyes, Christina Leitzel was told as a student to treat her craft as an expert artificial reduction would be: creating a perfect match of one of the most complicated cloths of nature.
But just as there are many ways to lose an eye – cancer or a fall; To a broom that affects the wrong part of the eyebrow – Leitzel wants to show that there are many ways to get one.
On a damp afternoon in Portland, Ore., A man in the thirty who recently lost his eye on a BB gun stepped out of her office with a grin. His eyes corresponded to his Forest Green Beanie. But to the left of his left, a shimmering golden vortex in the student.
Leitzel, also known as “Christina Ocularara” Tap And InstagramCreates what she calls ‘fun eyes’. Her designs have been painted, among other things, in the form of a sunflower and the diamond splute by A beloved cat. She has fulfilled requests as strangely as they touch: a man who has arrived with a box of ash, who wanted his deceased wife to ‘see everything he did’. A woman decorated in piercings who thought, why not pierced iris?
That, Leitzel said, turned out to be her favorite. The resulting Tiktok Was so popular that ophthalmologists felt forced to post warnings against piercing real eyeballs.
Social media have helped Leitzel’s practice to make a mecca for the one -eyed community. Perhaps, she suggests, going up often for the comfort of the fully observed, instead of those who are not. Some prefer to have their difference visible – and start a conversation.
“I just want my patients to be happy,” said Leitzel. “At the end of the day they have to feel comfortable with themselves.”
It has not always been that simple. Her profession, Ocularistry, needs at least five years course In the good design, manufacturing and maintaining prostheses. Leitzel hears from colleagues who are worried that her “fun” eyes are confusing medical aids with props or costumes. A few years ago, her professional association punished her for one of her designs, which it was said to “lower the respect of the profession”. (It was a cartoon penis.)
In case of regret, Leitzel requires new patients to first receive a standard prosthetic, which costs around $ 5,000 before insurance. If they want, she will make a fun for $ 500. She and Rachel Yee, a friend and patient, collect To cover the costs via a non -profit organization called the Fun eye fund.
Leitzel was not aware of Ocularistry until a classmate at her Philadelphia Art School expressed her eye and handed it to her. She was surprised that it was not a glass ball, as in the films, and that it was flawlessly painted by hand. The classmate sent Leitzel around the corner to her ocularist, who recorded her as a student.
There she learned the art of making eyes: how to throw a mold with an organic putty called Alginate. How to create the illusion of dilatation through carefully layers of light and dark pigment.
Strands of common thread embedded in the resin give the appearance of veins. To get an eye on a lifelike level of irritation, Leitzel asks: Had the patient slept well the night before? Any recreational substances? (“After all, it’s Portland,” she said.)
She also listens to stories about accidents and edits. For some patients she turns the Mirrors during fittings, knowing that seeing their raw socket is too much to wear.
In 2021, Leitzel Yee, who had lost her eye to cancer as a toddler, met for a fitting. Yee was 31 and had always wanted an eye with a student who was gold and shimmering. But ocularists rejected her and told her it wasn’t what they were doing. Not Leitzel.
It was the first time, Yee remembered that she was happy with a new prosthetic one. But she first only wore it under friends, not sure if she could process the attention. Instead, she continued to wear her realistic prosthetic.
Only when she later saw hateful remarks on Tiktok about her eye, did she realize that it was no point in hiding. “It is human nature to recognize differences in people’s faces,” said Yee. “When they look, I wanted to give them something to watch.”
Nowadays she has dozens of fun designs from Leitzel and retains her realistic eye for rare cases, such as renewing her driver’s license. “It depends on my mood – and my outfit,” said Yee. Jet black for the gym. Pearly White, with Swarovski crystals and gold under the protective acrylic layer, for her wedding.
Not all Leitzel experiments come true. Attempts to bed in insects – a bee, a scorpion – have resulted in ground blobs, although the latter surprised her when it glowed under a black light.
Leitzel’s newest chase was a snowflower effect, involving glitter that would dance in diluted glycerine. It didn’t work as she hoped. “Liquid is nothing,” she said, taking a closer look at the translucent plastic between her fingers. “At least, only when I find out.”
