bowling ball garden bees
« soul mate bowling ball garden bees painting »
This week, I took a break from drawing and painting and started crafting. I never thought I would enjoy crafting, which used to be a word that I would crinkle my nose at, but it’s been very fulfilling (or I’m just getting older). The project I started on is going by a lot faster than most of my paintings, so there is pretty instant gratification too.
Winter in central Texas is a perfect time to work on the garden hardscape and decor, the plants are dormant and it’s not too cold to be outside working. I was browsing garden decor ideas on the web trying to come up with new ways to pretty up my garden and I stumbled upon a Birds & Blooms craft project on how to turn old used bowling balls into adorable garden bumblebees. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to make them RIGHT AWAY!
The next day David and I went to Goodwill and bought 3 old bowling balls for a few dollars each. Then off to Home Depot to buy the rest of the supplies from the Birds & Blooms list multiplied by three.
- Silicone caulk (I didn’t buy this because I had Liquid Nail at home that I used instead)
- 303″ #6 copper wire. Cut at the hardware store at these lengths:
1. Six — 8.5″ lengths for antenna
2. Six — 20″ lengths for top wing
3. Six — 22″ lengths for bottom wing - Window Screen: Six—8.5″ squares
- Hardware cloth: Six—9.5″ squares
- Six—1″ round wooden beads (from the craft store)
- Kilz exterior primer (I had primer already)
- Yellow exterior latex paint (I got “Sunflower” by Glidden)
- Black exterior latex paint (I had some left over from painting my front door)
- 26 gauge bare copper wire (approx. 60-70″ for each wing) (I didn’t buy this, I thought that heavy weight fishing line would work just as well and I had some at home leftover from creating a fishing line trellis on the garden fence)
- Brush or sponge (have a ton of these, of course)
- Wire cutters
- Pliers
- Sandpaper (this wasn’t on the original list, but I had some and thought it was an important item to add)
I first put down some black plastic (cut open a large trash bag) in front of the tv in the living room, then I wiped down the bowling balls. They were a little dirty from the thrift store. I lightly sanded each ball to give them a little tooth for the primer to stick to. Mojito helped a lot too. I started priming, I painted each ball with primer but had to wait for the primer to dry, then to paint the underside.
I’m documenting each step, so come back for more crafting later!
Related posts:
- bowling ball garden bees painting
- bowling ball garden bees wings
- bowling ball garden bees finished
- new plants and new garden design
- learning to garden part 1
This entry was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 9:24 am and is filed under art & design tutorials.
