DIY Gazing Ball

[BigV]

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.


I like how the colors and design of this ball matched the colors and design of the marbles.


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.


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.