A Different Gazing Ball and Lessons Learned

Sometimes it is worthwhile to think of different ways to do things.  This gazing ball is made exactly like the others except for how it is "grouted".  The grout is not the regular type of grout used in mosaics.  This was grouted with clear epoxy and frit.

Frit is ground glass particles.  It comes in a number of sizes, from fine powder to pieces a few millimeters in size.  I used a fine sized frit for this piece.  I had not started out to use frit at all.  Its use came about from lessons learned.

I wanted to "grout" this ball with clear epoxy.  I was hoping that clear epoxy would allow the shiny silver tape to show through and reflect back most of the light.  So I bought "guaranteed to dry clear" jewelry grade epoxy.  It was clear.  It was also as runny as water.  So my initial plan to use it as "grout" obviously was not going to work.  My husband suggested mixing the epoxy with frit until it formed a paste.  That worked, more or less.  The epoxy still tended to run, dripping out of the paste of frit, so I could only "grout" a small portion of the ball at a time  I'd have to wait until that section was dry and then "grout" another section.  It took quite a while to finish this ball.  I worked on this ball daily for a couple of weeks.  Another lesson I learned along the way was that frit set in epoxy can still scratch you.  I was moving the ball on one occasion and received a some scratches from the frit.

This ball stayed in direct sunlight all summer and did not crack.  I'm not sure if that was due to the epoxy being more flexible than regular grout or because the tape reflected so much of the light and heat.  I have read that it is recommended that balls be kept out of direct sunlight, although I have also read that many people have done so without the balls cracking.  If you make a gazing ball, you'll have to decide whether you want to risk putting your ball in direct sunlight.  If it is a really great ball, you might want to err on the side of caution.  If the results are just average, I'd use that ball to test whether or not your climate will allow you to leave the balls in direct sunlight.  Just a reminder: bring your gazing balls indoors during freezing weather. 

  As you can see from this photo, when the sun strikes the ball, the light reflects back through the glass.  The frit also reflects light.  When the sun hits from a good angle, the ball is ablaze with light.