Here's the latest mosaic project. I used a new 6" terra cotta flower pot and saucer. I painted them with a solution of 4 parts water to 1 part weldbond. I attached the marbles and glass tiles with full strength weldbond. The pieces are grouted inside and out. I still need to spray them with grout sealer.
Here is the fourth of six balls from the Baptist church. The first attempt was to paint it hammered green and cover it with rubber frogs which had been painted black, then hammered green. It looked really cute but the frogs kept falling off. I had sent it to the garden center in 2007 but the owner pulled it after several of the frogs came loose. So, I scraped them all off, touched up the hammered green paint, and tried again. This time I used large clear ovals on the equator, and a variety of large and small clear, plus clear butterflies, on the rest of the ball. I sold this one to my mother to give to her friend for Christmas 2007.
This was the third of six balls from the Baptist church. I didn't write down what color it was, but I think it was either black or the ugly black with turquoise that you see on bowling alley balls. Anyhow, I painted it hammered bronze and tried gluing rubber salamanders on it. This was an idea I cased (copy and share [steal?] everything) off the internet. I painted a bag of dollar store salamanders black, then hammered bronze. However, the little buggers did not want to stay glued and were a complete pain to work with. I gave up, scraped them off, re-painted the ball off white, and covered it with opaque lime green, opaque aqua, brushed clear with lime cat-eye, and clear with aqua cat-eye in a circle pattern. I love this combination of colors! I sent it to the garden center this summer and it sold.
This was the second ball I got from the Lutheran rummage sale. It was navy and I painted it periwinkle and decorated it with opaque periwinkle and clear with a periwinkle cat-eye in a flower power pattern. (Old habits are hard to break!) This ball sold at a garden center during the summer of 2007.
I hit paydirt again at the Lutheran Church's rummage sale on August 18, 2006. This is the first of 3 balls I bought that day. It was a lovely pearly tan color and I covered it with large and small clear marbles in a swirl pattern. (At last - something other than flower power!) A friend and neighbor in my craft club was especially enthusiastic about a ball I put in our club's annual Christmas auction, so I gave her this one as a present. (It's always nice to have them go to a good home!)
These pictures do not begin to do this ball justice. The ball itself was given to me by my cousin's aunt. I sometimes jokingly say that I can't decorate a ball until it "speaks" to me! Well, this one did! I had seen red marbles with a gold iridescence at A C Moore, and the minute I saw this ball I knew that those marbles would be perfect for it. I also immediately thought of my sister's sister-in-law, who loves black, gold, and sparkles, so she was the recipient. I used red heart-shaped marbles and filled in the rest of the area with the iridescent reds. At that time I hadn't discovered the macro button yet on the camera, which explains why the closeup shot isn't very clear. Maybe someday I'll have an opportunity to photograph it again.
This was the second ball given to me by my sister's aunt. It is turquoise and I covered it with opaque white, clear with turquoise cat eye, and clear in a flower power pattern. I gave this one to my sister's mother-in-law.
This is ball one of two given to me by my sister's husband's aunt. (Got that?) It is purple, so I decorated it with white opaque, clear with white cat eye, and clear beach glass in a flower power pattern. Since this aunt's favorite color is purple, I gave it back to her once it was decorated.
