"knoop" by iñigo cañedo
Merry from Making It Merry saw this lovely button bowl on Pinterest. It seems everybody and their brother’s uncle had re-pinned it so she sifted through all the pins till she got to the original. The artist didn’t explain how to do it but there were multiple comments and a few where people claimed to have replicated the piece.
According to the commenters, it should be as easy as coating a balloon with Elmer’s glue and then laying buttons on it. Once the glue is dry you pop the balloon and Voila! a button bowl. Not to be one to straight “copy,” Merry thought using pieces of stained glass to create a mosaic would be pretty and different.
OK, so 1) maybe the glue was a bit thick and 2) maybe the glass pieces were a bit heavy. What ever the problem may be, what she achieved was epic fail!
I’m still scratching my head over this bowl. I really doubt the glue method and haven’t even attempted it. I reckon it needs some kind of varnish or cement.
I can see how this might work IF you use a strong, thick tacky glue; and IF you start in the very middle (base of bowl) and slowly work in concentric rings around it; and IF you just apply glue in small areas at first; and — most importantly — IF you use lightweight plastic buttons (which stick) as opposed to heavy bits of stained glass (which do not).
My great grandma use to make the button bowls all the time, it was a craft her sisters and her did. I have a few of them at home made from light weight buttons or beads–it works, but how she did it and have it stick for years, I have no idea.
maybe it didn’t work because she had a few too many glasses of wine before hand
Don’t coat the balloon. Its more like glue a few n then another few n stop n then start again. The glue needs to get tacky b4 putting them on. The one step she missed was after gluing n drying the buttons…you have to then take mod podge glues n brush a nice even coat over the buttons n then let completely dry ….and then you pop the balloon n then yoooou have your self a bowl =) hopes that helps .
If you coat the balloon in glue and put buttons on there dosn’t the balloon stick to the buttons?
Tried this button bowl. I put a little elmers at a time, put the buttons on starting in the middle and working out in circles. When I popped the balloon about 4 hours later the whole thing caved in on itself. I guess I didn’t wait long enough for it to dry. Will try again another day, after I get all the glue off the buttons so I can use them again.
Hi, this does work. However it is a different affect than the picture above. The picture above, I can only assume is either done in 3d or done by using krazy glue and gluing only the edges of the buttons to eachother on tinfoil thats been layered on the inside of a bowl.
BUT the effect from the method you tried is still just as nice when done right. I’ve made 5 of these so far, and I find them so much fun! You can put letters in them by using different coloured buttons, spiral the colours around the balloon.
Obviously this wouldn’t work with something as heavy as stained glass lol
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