Repairing Misalignment of An Eye

Below is a fine example of a bust created by a student in sculpture. She relied on photos of her daughter as reference, as well as some in person observation. The execution was beautifully done, but one subtle, unnoticed problem became apparent as the piece was nearing completion. So much of the proportion and alignment were accurate, that it became noticeable that the right eye (on the left the face in the photo) was raised a bit, out of alignment with the left eye. It was determined that the right eye, rather than the left was the one to fix. This was because of the centered location of the right eye overall between the bottom of the chin and the top of the head.

Although at first she felt extremely intimidated to fix the problem, the repair was actually easy and quick. The key was to carve out the eye far enough away from the fine details that realignment and filling of the cut area was straightforward. This piece was to be molded with silicone and then cast in a variety of media. It was not intended to be fired, so trapped air bubbles were not an issue. If this was intended to be fired, then care would simply have to be taken to not introduce enclosed cavities to the repair.