eyes for all
NELLY JAMES AND FRANCESCA GELAI
HAVE MADE ARTIFICIAL EYEBALLS
THEIR BUSINESS.
Wor d s Lisa Marie Corso
Friendship origin stories are just as important as any meetcute,
and for Francesca Gelai and Nelly James it was love at firstsight.
Literally. The pair met while working as dispensing opticiansata
Melbourne optometrist. Soon, they began hanging out outsideof
rostered hours, but it wasn’t a series of brunches that launchedtheir
segue into true friendship – rather, it was starting their side project,
Eyes For All.
“We always knew we wanted to work on a special project together
that helped others, and ocularistry was the perfect hybrid of our
love for eyes, craft and people,” Nelly says. The decision to become
ocularists – folks who make and fit prosthetic eyes – came after
watching the documentary Saving Face, which follows the
rehabilitation process of three acid burn survivors in Pakistan.
“We were drawn to the stories of these incredible women, and
just knew it was a vocation we wanted to pursue,” Nelly says.
There’s no formal training to become an ocularist – it’s typicallya
family trade, passed down from generation to generation. So,Nelly
and Francesca found their own way in. “We basically had to findan
ocularist who would let us hang out with them and soak uptheir
wisdom and techniques,” Nelly says. They landed an apprenticeship
with artificial eye specialist John Pacey-Lowrie, undergoingfour
months of hands-on training in the UK, followed by further training
in Greece and New Zealand.
Armedwith the know-how to craft prosthetic eyes that look
deceptively like the real thing, the pair’s next step was to take their
knowledge to the people who needed it most. With their project Eyes
forAll,they “travel to developing countries and train local staff at
publichospitals to make and dispense artificial eyes, so the practice
canbesustainable and carry on into the future,” Francesca says.
Whilethere, they also set the hospitals up with all the tools and
machinery required for a fully functioning prosthesis lab.
“Inmany places, especially those with inadequate healthcare,
socialstigma and superstition, people with disabilities face
extremeostracism and shame,” Francesca says. Those who have
losttheir eyes are often deemed cursed by their communities –
byproviding a prosthetic alternative, Nelly and Francesca hope to
empower their patients and return some autonomy to their lives.
“Everysingle person we meet has a different story, and while it
canbetough at times, we consider ourselves so incredibly lucky
tobeinvolved in each of their rehabilitation journeys.”
Todate,all their work has been self-financed (with a little bit of
crowdfunding thrown in), spurred along by an impressive amount
ofambition, drive and energy. No doubt, a lot of patience, too –
thereare more than 40 steps involved in the making of a single
prosthetic eye. They describe the process as similar to making a
setoffalse teeth, only with the added task of matching the acrylic
eyetothe patient’s existing one. To do this, they get a little bit
craftyby staining the sclera – aka the white outer layer of the
eyeball– hand-painting the iris, and replicating veins with delicate
silkthreads.
Showing no signs of slowing down, Nelly and Francesca’s next
bigproject is setting up the first public hospital-based ocular
prosthetics clinic in Lagos, Nigeria. “We’re really excited about
this,asLagos is the most populous city in Africa, and currently
theonlyway to get a prosthetic eye is through expensive private
clinics,”Nelly says. “By working with the public health system,
prosthetic eyes will become more accessible and affordable for
thepeople who need them most.”PhotoBri Hammondour project