Ball #91

This ball was given to me by a friend from church. It was black or dark maroon with no gloss at all on its surface. I painted it flat hunter green and decorated it with marine mixture. It is accented with glass seahorses and shells that I purchased at The Christmas Tree Shop and was given to a friend in exchange for helping me pull out old fences and a stump.

Ball #77

This ball was given to me by a woman in my sister and mother's church in December 2009. Sadly, she passed away from leukemia in February of 2010. I'm waiting to hear if her family would like this ball as a memento of her, or if it would be too painful. It was dark silvery grey and I covered it with large & small clear peach, peach beach glass, opaque peach and orange metallic. There are also some clear butterflies.

5-21-11 Update - This ball was given to our cousins when we saw them for Dad's landmark birthday.

Ball #76

Another Catholic ball - this time a blue swirl. I liked the nickel shimmer so much I painted this one with it also. It is covered with amber iridescent butterflies, large and small peach, small amber iridescent, and clear iridescent with white cat eye.
Update: 06-09-10 - Sold via Craigslist.

Ball #44

Another ball from my friend's son. This one was painted navy and covered with large and small marine assorted (cobalt, green, turquoise, aqua, clear), butterflies and flowers. It was given to a friend as a birthday present in October 2007.

Ball #39

My friend's son works as a truck driver for a disposal company. He rescued this ball and was nice enough to put up with it rolling around in the cab of his truck all day. It was red sparkle and I covered it with red marbles that had a gold iridescence. I also added some glass flower and butterfly marbles. (The Dollar General had some great shaped glass marbles during the summer of 2007.) This ball sold at the garden center during the summer of 2007.

Ball #31

Here is ball #31. It was the fifth of six balls from the Baptist Church. I painted it hammered bronze and covered it with lime iridescent, clear with lime cat eye and brushed with lime cat eye, with a total of 524 marbles. It spent the summer of 2007 at a local nursery, didn't sell, and I gave it to a friend for Christmas. It now resides in her garden in Indiana.

Ball #22

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.

Ball #4

My co-worker rescued this ball one day when he spotted it along side the road. This happened several years before we ever met and before I started my bowling ball phase. When I told him about my new hobby, he donated this ball. It was a tan swirl pattern and I decorated it in a random pattern using large and small round clear half marbles. I gave it back to him as a present during the summer of 2005 and as far as I know, he still has it. His kids thought he was nuts to rescue it, and I'm afraid they think I'm even more nuts to decorate it!