Mosaic Bowling Ball

After completing my first two Transformed Treasure auction pieces this winter, I'd almost talked myself into skipping this third idea due to four other art/auction commitments waiting to be realized.   I managed those in record time and decided last week that I could beat the deadline this Friday after all.  I was highly motivated since this bowling ball was a shelved plan from last year.

I've tried to adhere to my self-imposed rule of using up what I have on hand instead of rushing to the store to purchase more supplies.  When I ran out of the blues I switched to the yellows and oranges.  White and green migrated the two sides fairly well but lo and behold --- I didn't have enough to finish so still ended up making a run to the store.  Ugh.  I would have been happy with a small bag of whites and maybe even back to blues but the bag mix was sparse on colors I needed so I ended up with the larger multi-colored bag to finish.  I'd venture to say I'm pretty much back where I started with the amount of colored glass supply again but alas, it will end up in another mosaic project.

The warm and cool color wave is an interpretation of fire and water, or flowers under the sky, therefore I entitled this globe "Earthworks".  I keep my eye out for appropriate weatherproof display stands at second hand shops.  I've no idea what these metal stands were used for originally but they work splendidly as 'gazing ball' stands for garden or home decor.

'Time Bomb" is Finished

It's pretty disturbing to spend hours on a project, feeling pretty satisfied with the incremental development, only to take a final look at the culmination and think ------ hmmm, I wish I had done blah, blah, blah. : /

Specifically, I wish I had randomly scattered several number tiles around the ball instead of in a clock face arrangement. That way I would not have had a front or back. IF I had not had a front or back, THEN I could have glued all sorts of miscellaneous clock parts from the seven junkers I bought at a second hand shop for this reason without it looking out of place. Oh well. So I had to work with what was already 'set in stone' so to speak. : )



I wanted this piece to look like a bomb not a clock so I refrained from just gluing clock hands on the front center, which would have easily snagged and broken off with handling. What you see is an alarm clock I mostly dismantled and sliced in half so I could achieve the relative appearance of a bomb timing mechanism. I didn't choose a digital one because it wouldn't be lit up - therefore no numbers would have appeared. woe is me. : (

My closing comment on show piece #5 --- this took far longer to make but was easier than I thought it would be. I had fun playing with a new medium and learned along the way, so I'm glad I tackled it. I can guarantee I will NOT be taking consignment orders to make another like this. Ha! But since I bought eight bowling balls to mosaic, I have seven more creations to experiment with. You'll see them on this blog but NOT anytime soon.

As far as my show status is concerned, I hope to complete #7 next week and post it by Friday. Here is #6 which I finished early last week while grout was curing on the ball. It is called Have You Time? The beginnings of this flower originated from a Marcy Tilton class experiment in surface design in May 2008. My unsuccessful screen printed stencil on fusible web was painted over with a macro fantasy flower. I heavily thread embroidered the petals with my sewing machine. The poem was ink jet printed on a Jacquard Silk printer sheet, cut to size with a wavy rotary blade and then given a light watercolor wash of green to blend with the flower details. Any sort of border treatment was counterproductive to the macro simplicity and its small 7 x 9 inch size.

Mosaic Bowling Ball - Part 3

Maggie Mae (top) and Max had front row locations next to my work station in the garage. They bored easily but did enjoy the front yard view when they weren't snoozing. This afternoon I made major headway on this project.

The grout color is a deviation from my original intent to use just Burnt Umber (dark brown), acrylic paint. It was too dark so I custom mixed 2 oz. each of Burnt Umber, lime green and red. It will probably dry a shade lighter but I like the mid-range color that blends well with both light and dark mosaic pieces.



I had to play with the grout consistency - too dry it crumbles, too wet it doesn't pack between the crevices well enough. You can see I thoroughly encased the ball with grout. It looks like a huge mud ball! I think this was overkill actually, but I'm still on a learning curve here. : ) I ended up scraping most of the excess off with my fingertips (wearing Playtex gloves), and then started carefully wiping and smoothing around each piece with a slightly damp (not wet) soft, round mosaic sponge. It took lots of rinsing, squeezing out the excess water from the sponge and then smoothing some more before the grout was smooth and the pieces well defined on the ball.



After letting the ball sit for 30 minutes to set up more, I then wiped the grout haze from each piece. It was important to rinse the sponge and change the water frequently but taking the time to do this now makes it so much easier and quicker to do a final polish with vinegar water once it is entirely dry. (minimum of 48 hrs.)



Since I used acrylic paint and very little water to mix my grout into a thick putty consistency, it will affect the regular drying time for the grout. I chose this additive because I want the flexibility in my grout for our Alaskan winters of freezing and thawing. I also put a cloth over the ball while it drys to help slow it down initially to avoid any cracking. I plan to let the grout dry four days instead of the typical two before I seal it with a few light coats of acrylic spray. The spray will seal the grout, help water proof it and bring out the shine on the glass. I plan on gluing additional clock parts as the final step so one more posting is forth coming. Check back in a week or so.

A side note here: The grout slurry I used to coat a bowling ball as mentioned in Part 2 didn't live up to my expectations. It rinsed off easily. I will resume the scoring process I used to rough up the ball before gluing mosaics to it. I prefer the extra measure of security the adhesion will have.

Mosaic Bowling Ball - Part 2

Today major progress was made on my 'time bomb' art piece. I mixed up enough grout to to fill the finger holes on this and one other bowling ball. As mentioned in Part 1 of this project, I put some caulk in the finger holes, stuffed paper towel about half way full, pushed it in tight with a screwdriver, then topped it off with grout. I used the screwdriver to poke any air bubbles out, then leveled the grout to the ball surface.

With the leftovers, I watered down the last bit of grout to use as a slurry rub on a blank bowling ball. I'd read that giving the ball a couple layers of thinned down grout would quickly cover the ball and create a nice rough surface for gluing mosaics to -- thus eliminating the sanding and scoring I did on the first ball. I won't know if this is a good technique or not, but certainly thought the time savings alone was worth the effort to find out.

While grout was setting up in the finger holes, I positioned the ball on my work stand and continued gluing mosaic pieces to the ball. I'm happy to say, I finished all but the finger holes... they still need to cure completely. My goal is to grout the ball this weekend. This is definitely a staging process and not to be rushed. Be back soon. : )

Mosaic Bowling Ball

Mosaic work is new for me. A few years ago during a basic class, I completed a decorative mirror. Since then I've gathered some resources and materials to explore this medium a bit more. After much online research, reviewing my mosaic books, and mental deliberation, I quit procrastinating and jumped in. "Time Bomb" is one of the eight mixed-media and fiber art show pieces I'm assembling for our July First Friday event at Terra Bella on Dimond, in Anchorage.


In the first photos you can see my work station set up in the garage. Due to the sanding and glass fragments I didn't want any of the debris traveling through the house or having the dogs walking in it. Because this piece is meant as yard art to withstand harsh Alaskan winters, I have prepped the bowling ball by washing it, rough sanding and then scoring with the sharp edge of a screwdriver to provide some 'tooth' for the adhesive to grab. I also sand the bottom of every piece I glue for the same reason. I'm using Indoor/Outdoor clear window and door caulk to glue the glass and ceramics to the ball. It has enough flex after drying to allow expansion and contraction in our freezing temps and hopefully keep the mosaics intact. The wire stand used to hold the ball while I work came from one of the bowling ball bags which works super!



Once I decided on orientation and a rough design idea, I glued Sudoku number game pieces in a clock face configuration. The center of that face is part of an alarm clock mechanism. I recycled moon and sun faces from a shower ring set because I liked the day and night implication in my time theme. The half-moon faces encircle one of the finger holes in the ball where I have stuffed paper towel to partially fill the hole and support a 'fuse' for my time bomb - which is a piece of alarm clock electrical cord. (see detail view of first ball photo) I glued three sun faces around the ball to balance out the focal point.

I decided to use colored glass half-marbles (from Michaels craft store), to fill the bottom portion where the ball will be resting on a stand. Colorful coordinating ceramic plate pieces fill in awkward areas where round marbles don't fit. It also adds more to the mosaic look I think. A round surface allows very little space per work session before the pieces begin sliding out of position, therefore the process is done in stages with a 24 hr. drying time in between. These photos show the first of my work sessions with more to follow.