In a tin can

Kaspar’s eye comes from the Müller Company in Wiesbaden, Germany. Founded in 1860, the Müller Company is the oldest fake eye institute in Europe. Here, they make fake eyes in every colour combination you can imagine. To achieve this, they blow glass spheres through a straw above a flame. The future wearer of the eye is usually present for this, so that the prosthetic eye will have the exact right shape and colour. Christof Müller-Uri, ocularist (fake eye maker) and the founder’s great-grandson:

“People often demand perfect symmetry, but in reality, your eyes are always a little bit different. And then there are customers who want a really big eye, which is obviously weird if your real eye is much smaller.”

Imagine a small, sleepy town, buried deep within the Thuringer forest. In these mountains, tucked away among the mighty conifers, with ‘Glashütte’ sprinkled everywhere, there’s a settlement called Lauscha. This is where the semi-manufactured products that were perfected in Wiesbaden are made, where they come from. The fact that marbles and Christmas baubles are produced here as well shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Here, in these woods, lie the roots of nearly every ocularist in the world. They are descendants of the travelling glass blowers that discovered on these lands enough quarts sand, chalk and wood to perform their craft, and founded the village here in the late Middle Ages. Since then, the craft has been passed on from generation to generation. That sounds more romantic than it really was: each family frantically kept their recipes hidden from their neighbours and once you were a family member you were forced to work for the company - whether you hated glass blowing or not.

Nowadays, prosthetic eyes are occasionally made out of plastic as well, but they often cause an allergic reaction. Plus, glass comes with more shine, and more depth.