Artificial Eyes
by Paul, Jenny and Emily Geelen

Emily’s Practice Eye Saves the Day

Something really wonderful happened this week.

My niece Emily works with us as an apprentice. She is already highly skilled at polishing eyes.

Lately, she’s started painting and making practice eyes and we’ve been impressed with the results.

This week a new client came in with an infection on his eye lid. His socket was also swollen and sore.

Once we saw his artificial eye it was easy to understand what the problem was.

Our client had his eye made overseas and it had very rough edges. This alone would certainly make an eye socket unhappy.

Once we took out the old damaged prosthesis and saw the state of the socket there was no way we could put it back in.

So there was a problem. Our client didn’t have a viable eye prosthesis.

Then Paul remembered Emily’s practice eyes. He chose a brown one and adjusted it slightly so it sat well.

Our client then had a temporary eye that he could wear while the socket swelling settled.

Although it wasn’t customised Emily’s temporary eye looked better than the client’s old prosthesis.

It was also highly polished so our client said it felt much more comfortable.

The best part was that Emily was here with us to see how useful her work had been.

She also got to see a very relieved and happy client walk out the door wearing a temporary eye she had made.

It was a very moving moment for us.

We had just witnessed the birth of a third generation of eye makers.

Whether Emily continues with this work is up to her.

What is certain is that we felt so very proud of what she had already achieved.

One Response

  1. I congratulate both of you for having Emily as an apprentice and all the best to Emily.
    Regards
    Sachin n Shreya
    Ocularists
    New Delhi,India

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