How to mosaic a styrofoam ball

This mosaic ball started off as a white crispy styrofoam ball from Michael's (a craft store). It is about 6 inches across. Click on the pictures for a closer view.

I used Weldbond glue (a white, water-based glue).

The theme is Spring. I chose the materials with the curvature of the substrate in mind. First I chose a porcelain vase that featured a beautiful peacock on a white background. The vase was thin and curved, so it did not work well in my other mosaic pieces, but was perfect for this ball. I had other pieces of curved porcelain that featured floral designs. I nipped all the porcelain pieces with Lepponit wheeled nippers, and ground all the edges smooth with a carborundum stone.

I wound a long gold-tone rope necklace in a spiral fashion all around the ball. There are many many stud earrings on this ball that were missing their mate. They include pearls, crystals, glass beads, gold-tone spiral designs, diamonds or cubic zirconas and an opal.

There are some tiny glass leaves and a few flattened marbles. There is a tiny tiny lizard that was in one of those candles that have various surprises embedded in them that was given to me by a close friend. There is a gold-tone locket. There's a little pink enamel gardening hat and a red enamel strawberry.

If you have stud earrings that still have the post attached, they are perfect for a project like this because you just put a spot of glue down and then poke the earring post into the styrofoam. Small brooches and pins with the back still attached also work well; just embed the pin backing into the styrofoam. Imagine how well a chipped round Japanese teapot would work, reincarnated as a gazing ball.

If a piece is thicker than desired, just press it into the styrofoam to make a dent.

I found a nice inexpensive but quite good quality three-legged stand at a thrift shop.

Really, the possibilities are many. It was not necessary to seal the styrofoam first, and I used regular sanded grout.

I have some rectangular pieces of white styrofoam that were used as packing material for a computer and in the future, I plan to use them as the base for mosaic wall art. Do not use the green florist foam; use only the white crisp styrofoam.

Read about how to use broken costume jewelry in mosaic art: http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Mosaic-Across-The-Universe-Guitar.

A guide for beginners is here: http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Create-Mosaic-Art-A-Guide-for-Beginners

A styrofoam ball transformed into a darling mosaic ball -- a pretty little conversation piece -- a fun easy way to use whimsical curved mosaic pieces.