Balsa wood head - eyes and definition

After my meeting with the stop motion technician I tried out her different suggestions for eyes in my balsa wood head:

Dowling balls
I quite liked these but they are too round in terms of what I want the aesthetic to look like.

Black pins - raised out of head
I really liked the suggestion of using pins and in particular thought the black pins raised out of the head worked particularly well.

Black pins - set in head

White pins - raised out of head

White pins - set in head

Staining test.

Staining

I wanted to try and stain the wood so as to give a bit more definition around specific features. After a coffee break I saved a bit of coffee at the bottom of my cup so as the use this to paint onto the wood. It worked ok but as the wood is very absorbent it tended to expand over the area I wanted it to be so I had to cut more of the wood back afterwards.