So last Fall when I was out at Goodwill looking for tables to paint for my "Tiny House" art space, I happened across a $5 bowling ball. And of course I had the thought ... "Now I could use this and really have a wind resistant gazing ball!" My daughter who was along at the time, kind of thought it was another of my crazy ideas but even she admits it looks great!
So the DIY info on this was -
I purchased the bowling ball at Goodwill for $5 and I purchased an all weather glue adhesive at Walmart for about $3 per tube (I found E-6000 in the crafts department and used about 3 tubes for the project). At a crafts store I found 2 boxes of glass mirrored gems in mixed sizes for about $8/box. I did not use 2 full boxes of gems but 1 box would not have been enough.
I placed the ball on an old towel on my work table, squeezed about a quarter size dab of adhesive on a paper plate and used a toothpick to butter the adhesive on the back of the gems as I placed them on the ball. I worked on this project for a few weeks. I just randomly fit the gems on the ball and was not concerned about making a pattern. I worked on it a section at a time and let each section dry overnight before rolling the ball onto a completed section. To date all gems are intact and looking good, and I do plan to move the ball inside my garage for winter. And BEST of all it has had no issues with any strong prairie winds!! 😉