Two Melbourne ocularists are among just a handful of Australians who are making prosthetic eyes by hand.
Francesca Gelai and Nelly James are working in the niche art of ocular prosthetics, and are defying perceptions by making eyes that don’t take the shape of a real eyeball.
The front of the prosthetic eye is curved, however, it does not take the shape of a full sphere because each eye is individually designed to suit the person’s anatomy.
Ms Gelai says their career is “somewhere between arts, science and medical” and that “there’s no course [to get qualified], it’s so niche - there’s about 10 people who do it in Australia, so we trained in London, Athens [then] volunteered in Kenya, Ghana [and] Nigeria.”
Gelai and James now handmake the eyes in a garage workshop in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.