Alternative Gazing Ball

I found an idea on Pinterest to cover an old bowling ball in pennies and place it in your garden.  I loved that it was re-purposing a discarded item and loved that it would be an usual "event" in my garden.  The text said that the copper will help repel slugs and keep your hydrangeas blue.  I'm dubious about both of those -- I think the volume of copper "run-off" would be minimal -- too minimal to have any actual effect -- but it doesn't change the fact that I like the look.

A few weeks ago I spent an entire glorious afternoon poking around in various thrift stores, and lo and behold I found a bowling ball (and bag, let's not forget the bag) for $4.99.  I was like a little kid at Christmas... I snatched it up, and looked around to see if anyone had noticed what a total score it was.  (No.  lol)   For a while I lugged it around the store like a ball and chain... ultimately plopping it into a shopping cart and heading to check out.

This past weekend, partly due to being captive in my home due to the White Rock Marathon (not complaining, you all just keep on running) and mostly due to inclement weather, I lined up projects to do indoors. I picked up some marine glue, scoured the office and house for stores of pennies, and set to work:

Fun for all, I tell you, gluing pennies on a bowling ball... until the bottom of the tube rips and 8 minutes later you realize you have about 3 tablespoons of Herculean strength adhesive globbed down your wrist... Gloves.  Wear gloves.  And a drop cloth wouldn't be a bad idea either...

It's trickier than you might think, getting them all squished in against each other and spaced proportionately.  Thankfully you do have a little bit of time during which you can slide them around before they permanently adhere.  I'm going to give myself a pat on the back for starting on the finger-hole side of the bowling ball to learn the technique, (which, let's be honest who even knew a technique would be involved??) which will most certainly be the side that goes down in the dirt! 

I have it sitting in a mixing bowl with a towel on top to keep it from rolling around my livingroom floor as I work... And now, while I wait for more pennies to magically appear in my house, its on my dining room table.  I'll admit to touching it like a bald man's head when I walk by... it's cold and the pennies feel funny under my hand.

Over time the pennies will develop that copper patina -- how fun is that?  Anyone have any ideas for a brown circa 1970's zippered bowling ball bag?