Garden Art That’s Right Up Your Alley

Turn secondhand bowling balls into eye-catching ornaments with a few simple materials

gardener have been using bowling balls as garden medallion for many age , especially since they begin being acquire in legion jelly - dome colors and swirling patterns . To my taste , however , they still look like bowling balls . I started to inquire if I could mask them and make them more graceful . Inspired by stone mosaics , I determine to paste stones and deoxyephedrine gems to bowling ball , and was astonied at the results . Here ’s how I do it .

3 Stepsto a Striking Ornament

Supplies

•Pea gravel

•Bowling ball

•Two - part epoxy glue glue

•Clean scraps of wood and several nails for mix and apply epoxy

1. Prepare materials

opt stonesthat are about¾of an inch long and half that width . A pea - gravel pathway should yield an ample supply ; about a dry quart should suffice . Because everything needs to be clean and ironic for the epoxy to deposit , wash the stone and bowling testicle thoroughly , and let them dry out completely . Set the ball on a few wood fight or in a little stiff pot so that it sits securely .

2. Mix and glue

integrate a humble batchof epoxy on a fleck of wood using a uncompromising nail .

Apply glueto the base of several gem , and steadfastly place them as a group to the very top of the testis . arrest them in place until the epoxy glue sets , about five minutes .

Add single stonesto the heap already affixed to the ball once those first few gemstone congeal , but always go around the ball slightly so that fresh Stone are supported by the previously glued stones . Apply enough epoxy glue to each rock so that the stone stick to both the bollock and to the adjacent stones . satiate the finger holes with a mixing of stones and epoxy , leave the thumb hole open for stake .

Take breaksto allow sections of epoxy to cure . This means it will take several hours to cover a ballock with Stone . design on starting several projects at once so that you’re able to move along to the next as the first one dry .

3. Handle with care

Be carefulwhen handling the stone - comprehend testis because it is considerably heavier than the unadorned ball . I lay in my custom-make balls in the service department each wintertime before the first operose frost because any piddle between the Harlan Stone would spread out during immobilize and cause damage .

A Gallery of Disguises

I like to experimentwith dissimilar I. F. Stone colours and textures — and with different textile — to transmute lowly bowling balls into works of garden graphics . Here are a few of my favorites .

Mix materials to create patterns

Using dissimilar combination of stone , you may make striking patterns . This ball has distinguishable patches of large , slate white-haired gravel and a light - dark pea crushed rock .

Cover mistakes with paint

I used a dissimilar glue in one of my earlier task , and it began to bubble up from between the stones , creating a mussy result . Instead of chuck the labor , I spray the crushed rock - encrusted ball with undimmed gold metallic paint . It now look like a giant gold nugget .

Play with glass gems and color

you could habituate the colour of the globe ( its existing color or a colour you paint it ) to your artistic vantage by applying colorful meth gems from slyness stores . Not only are the spaces between the orbitual gems reveal but also many of the jewel are transparent .

Mimic stone with sanded paint

I primed and then painted this ball with backbone - dark paint mix with sand . A few light sprays of brown and white paint give it an aged coming into court .

Robert Stamper is an avid gardener and rhododendron aficionado who garden in Zionsville , Pennsylvania .

picture : Michelle Gervais ; Edward Fielding / www.dreamstime.com ; Brittany Leandra ; Steven Cominsky

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