another bowling ball

anneinva_2009

16 years ago

here is the 2nd bowling ball i just completed. it has 2 geckos on it. i learned some important lessons. the orange one shows and the purple one disappears into the background. i am taking a class and the teacher suggested i use two grout colors, not so sure this worked well. i think it looks messy. any tips on how to do this well? the black was for the gecko and gray for background. i did the black first, but didnt like it after the gray. so i regrouted with black again. perhaps i could have just painted the grout around the gecko.

if i could do it over again. i would have used one grout color.

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Comments (4)

texaswild
16 years ago
Your BB is beautiful. I'm waaaaaaaay to lazy to go the multiple grout colors. What I've found is that contrast in the tess is what makes things stand out more. For example, I TRY to use the color wheel theory when I place my tess - place darks next to lights, complimentary colors next to each other - blue next to orange or yellow, greens next to reds, white next to black, etc. That way, they stand out more - another technique I use is outlining a light color w/black or a dark, or outlining a dark color in a light color. Hope this is clear.
anneinva_2009
Original Author
16 years ago
that is good advice. at the time i was being lazy and i knew i should outline the geckos first before doing the triangle thing. but i didnt. i think that would have been a better idea to place the dark next to light like you said with an outline. too bad i didnt ask you. i have found that i could probably teach this class i am taking and sometimes i should follow my own gut feeling. I wish i hadnt done that dark grout. I also should have done 2 geckos with the same color. great suggestion to use the colory wheel theory. oh well, it looks ok, good enough to give to the school auction which is next week. it looks better from far away. and squinting. Ha HA
like i said i like the swirly ball better, so i am keeping that one.
by the way, i thought the sealer was to weatherproof the work
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Calamity_J
16 years ago
I think your geckos are super cute...gotta love garden gazing balls!!!I like using different grouts sometimes, it is a great experiment, as most projects I do are mad hatter experiments!ha! I have been switching from bowling balls to round light globes filled with concrete...thus forming a more durable ball for the freezing weather we get here, I use outdoor mortar and grout and sealer, that I get from the tile/flooring store, just cuz I am trying to make things last.
texaswild
16 years ago
ANNE: I'm sure there must be a weatherproofing sealer, but since I don't live in an area w/really extreme weather conditions, I just haven't researched it. I think FLAGTRUCK, who, I might add, is AWOL around here lately, uses a sealer she gets at the auto supply. CALAM: That's exactly what the tile store owner told me I had to use outside - porcelain. Even after the hard winter we had, the front walk stuff made it fine. I did notice some chipping on a couple places on my fountain surround. The two places were the red tiles I special ordered from Lowes, and a red plate I received as a gift from my DD. She purchases them every year for me from World Market. You can tell they're very porous on the inside.