Eye on Art

We are one step closer to having Ania's replacement eye finished. We met with our Ocularist this morning to work on having the mold created to fit Ania's socket and map out the placement of her iris.

His 16th floor office had an incredible view of Millenium Park and Lake Michigan. Ania enjoyed it and wanted to go touch "the bean" like she did last summer- I think we will go do that at our next office visit on the 25th (a week from today). 

Ania is supposed to have her eye irrigated with a saline solution two times a day and over the last few weeks, she has asked me to just take her new eye out completely and rinse it that way rather than irrigating by squeezing saline into her eye (and as a result all over her face!). Because we take it out almost daily to clean then, I have gotten good with taking it out and putting it back in- and she is very comfortable with me doing it. Her temporary eye is not perfectly fitted either- it's a bit too small so it flips upside down at least once a day so I am constantly fixing it for her. She did pretty well with our ocularist looking at her today but would only let me take it out or put her eye back in in front of him. I also got to put the wax mold in that he made for her newest version. 

Wax mold of her new NEW eye! 

He also mapped out the location of her iris and size of her pupil. When it was time to paint her iris, he asked her to come sit at his "art table" so he could look at her eye every now and then to match her good, right eye. She brought her markers and coloring book over to his table and watched as he set up his paints. The paints are just regular Windsor Newton oil paints like you would find at any art store. An ocularist really is a very specialized artist! Watching him work is pure magic and very interesting!  Who knows... Someday she may paint eyes too! 

Two artists at work! Ania with her markers & ocularist with his oils :) 

Checking out his art supplies :)

Matching the color! 

Work in progress

Does it match?

There is a part 2 to this process. We will return to see him a week from today so he can finish and she will finally have her NEW MATCHING EYE!! We will certainly go touch that "magic bean" of Millenium Park to celebrate the occasion :) 

When we got home, she must have been feeling inspired because she asked to finish the fox painting she started in the hospital last week! 

Happy to say, "Little Fox" was completed and prints are up in her Etsy shop for purchase! So good to see her working and smiling again after her rough week last week! Artistic magic seen in many ways today!!

Find prints of  "Little Fox" & other artwork available at:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/DaintyWarrior

God Bless,

Erica