Tagged: bowling balls

Bowling Ball Art

Penny covered bowling ball by Kirkus in WA
Penny covered bowling ball by Kirkus in WA

I Freecycled two bowling balls I had no use for today. However, I was tempted to decorate them having found this unique subculture of bowling ball decorators. People have been painting them and using adhesives to attatch all kinds of stuff to them. Most people seem to use tile adhesive, GEII, or liquid nails to attach various objects (like pennies, shards of glass, etc.) to them while others have painted and varnished them. They seem to be the decorative item of choice for gardens. I even saw a fountain with a bowling ball as its focal point.

I looked up how to apply verdigris to copper surfaces. Here are two recipes I found online:

You make a solution of vinegar, salt and ammonia. Mix 1 cup of vinegar, 2-4 T salt (this is not an exact science) and maybe a quarter cup ammonia. Put the mixture in a spray bottle and spray your pot. Leave them dry in the air. Repeat as necessary until you have the color you want your copper to be. Check to make sure it isn’t lacquered. If not, and you follow these instructions, you may want to lacquer the pots yourself using Rustoleum spray lacquer (high gloss or matte are fine). Make sure that you only lightly coat the pots, and do several very light coats. The lacquer can dull the color and turn it brown if you overdo it. I’m an artist, and I use this method on my relief drawings in copper, and it works nicely.

Option two is to use Miracle-Gro and water and put it in a spray bottle.