Mosaic Gazing Balls

Iridescent glass.

Regular readers know that I am going through a major plumbing problem at my home.  A pipe rusted out underneath the concrete slab and the concrete slab was jack hammered up to reach the pipe.  Since I blogged on Sunday, I haven't been in my studio at all.  For the last few days, I have been scrubbing down the walls and floor of the master bedroom to get the concrete dust off of them so we can paint.  I think the paint is two shades lighter now that the walls have been cleaned.  Since I did not have anything new to offer, I thought I'd put up pictures of some of my homemade gazing balls.  At least they are seasonal. 

Transparent stained glass.

I have not forgotten that I had blogged that I would show some other ways to make the base for the gazing balls.  (A reader had written in with a question about what else could be used because she was having trouble finding an old bowling ball.)  With the exception of the painted ball, the base used for the balls are bowling balls.  For the painted ball, I made a paper mache' ball that was covered in concrete.  It was a fun project, but more work than most people would want to go to in order to make a ball.  I need to wait until the temperature is a little warmer before I can get to work on other ball forms.  Although it is mid-April, we still have very chilly nights and I need some warmer weather before I can do anything

Glass gems.

with that.  A freeze warning was issued last night
and it was below freezing when I woke up this
morning.  

As a recap for the mosaic gazing balls, I obtained an old bowling ball by requesting one on Freecycle.  In case you aren't familiar with Freecycle (freecycle.org), it is a network of local groups that put items up for donation free to a good home.  Go to the main home page to sign up for a group in your area.  There is no charge to join, but you do have to put up an item for donation before you can request an item. 

Painted concrete.

Once you have donated an item, then you can put a request for something you need.  If someone has what you want, and is willing to give it away, arrangements are made between you and the other person as to how you will pick up the item.  In my case, I requested used bowling balls.  I received four balls from one person.  Just a note for caution:  most of these meetings go without a hitch, but there have been a few cases where things did not go well one way or another.  If possible, make a plan to meet the person somewhere other than your home.  (The website recommends this also.)

Anyway, once I obtained the bowling balls, I plugged the finger holes with Silicone II glue.  Then they were wrapped in a shiny waterproof plumber's tape.  This  adds a layer of waterproofing and the reflective surface of the tape bounces the light back up through the glass giving the ball a nice glow.  Next the bits of glass are glued on using the Silicone II glue.  After that the ball is grouted and then sealed with a concrete sealer. 

You can use glass gems (rounded blobs of glass) or you can use cut stained glass.  Each type of glass has its advantages and disadvantages.  The advantages of the glass gems are that they have no sharp edges and the rounded shape tends to reflect the light nicely in a way that flat glass does not.  The disadvantage of glass gems is that the rounded shape means that they can not be set as close together as I would like and the balls have an overall lumpy look to the them.  The advantages of stained glass are the variety of colors and the ability to cut various shapes that allow for making designs and using the grout lines as part of the pattern.  If you plan to use stained glass, iridescent glass or diachronic glass work best.  Transparent stained glass tends to look flat compared to the other types of glass.  The disadvantage of using stained glass is that it may have sharp edges, especially if you cut the glass yourself.  The sharp edges can be dealt with by placing the tiles in a plastic container and giving them a couple of minutes of vigorous shaking.  Even then, it is worthwhile to use an abundance of caution when dealing with cut glass.  

I cut my own glass, but if you do not have the equipment for that, you can purchase pre-cut tiles.  The cut tiles tend to be expensive though.  It is generally much less expensive to order them online in larger quantities than to purchase the small bags at the craft store.  Sometimes you can find good deals on the glass gems at a Dollar Store or stores of a similar marketing plan.

For comparison, I am putting up three different types of balls.  The blue ball is made with iridescent stained glass.  The ball with the stripes (which is a spiral if you look at it from the top) is made with transparent stained glass.  The ball with the blue and green glass is made with glass gems.  The last picture is my painted concrete ball.  I don't have an outside picture of that ball yet because it is still too cold to put the balls outside.  Soon!  The painted ball is an experiment.  I am hoping that the paint will last outside on the concrete ball.  I had good success with painted stepping stones, but that was using bake in the oven glass paints.  That paint has held up outside for years.  (See my blog posts on painted stepping stones for details.)  This paint is acrylic.  I'll let you know how this paint holds up. 

One last word on the gazing balls.  The grouted balls should be brought in during freezing weather.  Water that manages to infiltrate the ball could freeze and cause the ball to crack.  Some posts on the internet have stated that they have left the balls out all year and have not had a problem with freezing and cracking.  Other internet posts have said that leaving the balls in direct sunlight could cause them to crack.  That has not been my experience.  My gazing balls are out in full sun all summer with no problems.  The only time I had a gazing ball crack, it fell over during a storm.  The soft ground in the garden was so soaked that the stand fell over.  The ball sat on the ground and soaked up water.  It cracked after that, though I don't know if the ball cracked because of the (relatively short) fall or because it soaked up water from sitting on the ground.   

As soon as I can get back into my studio, I will be blogging again on the new diorama.  Sometimes you just have to get through a situation before you can get back to doing the things that you want to do.