DIY Gazing Ball

I have been wanting to find an interesting project for bowling balls for some time.

What?

Why are you laughing?? :glares sternly:

Whatever.

I decided to make a gazing ball for TWIL. It turned out pretty nicely.

First, get a bowling ball. This one cost me under five dollars at the local Value Village. It came with a cheesy Bowling Rangers bag or somesuch. I left the bag with the clerk. I also got a couple packages of flattened glass marbles from Michael's. Add one glue gun. And a pot and saucer for the stand. Ready? Let's go.
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I like how the colors and design of this ball matched the colors and design of the marbles.
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The marbles. I had to work out what the area of a sphere is (Pi * d^2) so 3.14*8.5*8.5=266. I spread the marbles out to see how much coverage I'd get from one bag. It neatly filled a square about 12x12, or 144 square inches. Two bags would cover the ball easily.
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I'm starting the pattern with light blue. I had plenty of this color, and I didn't really know how it was going to work out, so I started with the batch that had the greatest room for error. Also notice I have covered the part of the table I'm working on with some kraft paper to keep from scratching/melting/gluing her tablecloth.
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A little further along with the pattern of swirly stripes.
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More of the same.
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It's getting pretty filled in now.
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The finished product!

I got a pot and saucer to (mix and) match, put them base to base and glued them together. It fits very neatly in the center of the birdbath. She loves it and that makes me happy. :)

bowling ball -- $5
glue sticks -- $2
marbles, two bags -- $12
pot and saucer -- $5

A couple hours and under $25 for a neat garden decoration. Pier 1 should be so lucky!
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Very neat! How did you cover the finger holes?

Epilogue:

I went out to the patio this morning and noticed a handful of loose marbles in the birdbath. They looked nice, complimenting the sparkly gazing ball... but...

It turned out they had simply fallen off the bowling ball. Oops.

This will be easy to repair, but what I've learned is that I should be more generous with the glue, use the high/strong hold setting, and I think it would be worthwhile trying to scuff up the bottoms of the marbles on a piece of sandpaper before gluing them to the ball.

Also, these marbles are not all the same size, nor are they uniformly circular. They do not pack evenly. Having some of the ball show through is not a problem for me on this project, but it's worth keeping in mind for other patterns and other backgrounds. I've also seen images where the mosaic pieces were set in grout. That will FILL the empty spaces, and depending on the color of the grout, change the look of the surface. Overall, I'm happy with the result. I'll re-glue the marbles that dropped off overnight later when it cools down.
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that makes me hungry. They look like smarties...

Seriously though, that is fucking epic. Lovely.

limey;824644 wrote:

Very neat! How did you cover the finger holes?

I covered the finger and thumb holes (aside, the thumb hole on this ball accepts my PINKIE finger to the second knuckle only--very small!) by making that area the bottom of the ball. They're not covered by marbles at all. They're covered by the saucer.

If you look at the third picture in the second post, the one with the hand on the ball, you can see a black line drawn on the ball. I traced the outline of the saucer on the ball so I'd know where the ball and holes would be when positioned in its display orientation.

Very cool project! And she loved it, which makes you happy ... best part of all.

neat o...

Cool.

Now for step three, take an old welding gas cylinder...

Thank you all!

:)

Looks lovely V, I like the pattern you chose :)

Can you get some smaller size (or bigger) to deal with the gaps?

I wonder if you could melt a glass marble(s) with a torch. That would probably look really groovy, and require less marbles.

jimhelm;824726 wrote:

I wonder if you could melt a glass marble(s) with a torch. That would probably look really groovy, and require less marbles.

Yes. Rocks get squishy too. Very cool to stick a nail through a rock.

How hot does hot glue have to get to become soft again?

I won't be impressed until you build a Mary in a Bathtub.

not necessarily clean.... but Immaculate.

Man, I've missed you monkey!

and nice gazing ball, BigV. lemme know what sorts of epiphanies come to you whilst you gaze (we call it maize).

I like the flame torch idea.

Could you set the marbles in a concrete or grout-like substance, leave it to harden then either put it through a potters kiln, or work it over artistically with an oxy torch? So that the marbles got just the right amount of melty so they begin to fuse together.

Nice V. Very creative. Glad to hear TWYL is happy with it as well.
Thats always a HUGE PLUS.

It would crack me up if you did all this work to make the pattern melt and be swirly, and the end result looked just like... that swirly pattern on every bowling ball ever seen. :)

I like it bumpy, myself.
[COLOR="White"]That's what she said![/COLOR]