I know I've posted stuff here before on making eyes, but to be honest, I've found those methods to not be so great. As far as I remember, I haven't posted about how I make them now. But if I have, oops...

First you need a base for the eyes. This can vary depending on what you have available and what size you need. For larger eyes, I just use a ping pong ball. If you use styrofoam balls, I suggest a paper mache layer or two. Then I get some sort of circle stencil or freehand a circle on the eye using either some paint (usually Apple Barrel or whatever other brand of craft acrylic paint I can find cheap) or a marker. After that I fill in the circle with the base color for the eye. Once the paint's dry, add a few specks in the color of the eye to add depth. Use variants of the base color for these specks and maybe use a reference photo if you're unsure. When this paint is dry, use either paint or a marker to make a black circle in the middle. After that's dried, use a few layers of glossy Mod Podge or other sealant.
Hope this is useful for people. And sorry if I have said this stuff before and just forgot about it.

thats a pretty good method. Gives me lots of ideas thanks for posting!

Glad you find it useful. Hope it helps.

Oh and here's a picture of the puppet I use the most. His eyes are using that method with Ping Pong balls.

cool

haha, i love the puppet! kinda like a Picaso kinda guy?

right! mwhahahaaa

I was spray painting my eyes for the white part, but did use craft acrylic for the colors/black.  I also sometimes used clear spray to seal. I'm going to try some of these techniques I didn't think of the mod podge!

Thanks for sharing!

haha, i love the puppet! kinda like a Picaso kinda guy?

Umm. More like an exaggerated version of Igor from Young Frankenstein.

I was spray painting my eyes for the white part, but did use craft acrylic for the colors/black.  I also sometimes used clear spray to seal. I'm going to try some of these techniques I didn't think of the mod podge!

Thanks for sharing!

Ahh. Well, I suggest the paper mache over the styrofoam because I find the styrofoam is too soft. I happened to have mod podge from attempting to do screen printing and I like how it seals and hardens things.

Welcome. Hope you find some of it useful.

Just to add another idea if you don't have ModPodge around.  I've used clear finger nail polish in the past to seal my eyes.  They where for a  marionette so it was a smaller eye then a hand puppet but I think it would still work.  I do like ModPodge though.  I've actually been using it instead of wheat past for paper mache' work. Hardens really nice.

Oh I never thought of using mod podge instead of paste for pare mache! I may use that when I do my artist in residency week in september! I am going to have some of the kids use paper mache to sculpt their heads for the puppets.

Well it was a bit of a "mistake" in a way on my part.  I wanted to do a project and could not find wheat paste at a store near me and did not want to drive out to where I knew I could get it. I saw the ModPodge at Hobby Lobby and thought "What the heck." and decided to give it a try. Even when I use wheat paste I add white glue to the mix so figured it could not be that different.

I've used clear finger nail polish in the past to seal my eyes.

@Shawn, I made a mistake and used clear polish on a foam golf ball.  I spray painted it white, painted on the pupil and then covered it in clear nail polish.  It cracked!  It would be a good effect on a goulish character but I was going for a little boy.  I don't know if it would crack on a regular ping-pong ball or not, or maybe it was just the brand, or the combo of the foam/spray paint.  Anyway, one must experiment to find what works.  That's half the fun!

Ahh yes... that makes sense Angel.  Finger nail polish would not be flexible and I have always used it on a solid base.  For foam ModPodge may be a better option since it has a bit more flexibility.

You are so right.... what works for one thing may not work for another.  It is all one big experiment!