she orbs, she orbs ~ I Pinned, I Made ~ I Failed

okay, to some people this is not considered a fail.   but it is for me since it's not getting used for my original purpose, and the orb went a little lopsided on me.   so it's a fail in the design department.

 the other week i got my orb on.  remember this lovely shot?

this somehow miraculously transformed into this

making the orb was really easy.  you can see Crafty Nest's tutorial here, but this is basically what i did.

1 bouncy ball
1 bottle Aleena's Clear Tacky Glue
1 cereal bowl
1 skein of yarn (i used the yarn from my yarn wreath that i made awhile back.)
1 deflating/inflating needle

make a circle on one end of the ball with marker.  this will allow your hand to go inside of the orb to change the bulb.
i spread out crafting paper on a table, so glue wouldn't get everywhere.  i placed a pea size amount in my fingers and i placed it on the yarn while pressing the yarn between my fingers.  i wrapped the yarn with glue onto my ball, which was resting on a cereal bowl.  that's not necessary, but i found it helpful.  repeat the process over and over and over again.  it will take some time so pop in a movie.  just don't cover the circle you marked on your ball.  let the ball dry for a few days.  she recommends 48 hrs but owen got a hold of my orb and bounced it down the hallway after 24 hours.  it turned out just fine.  but i would say 48 hours is a good time.  place the deflating needle into the ball and squeeze out the air.  the ball will come out of the orb, and the yarn will not stick to the ball.  you will be able to move some strings around to work with your choice of lighting kit, so don't fret about that.

so here are some things i suggest.

1.  she recommends a quarter size amount of glue at a time, which i thought was excessive.  but then again, i was working with yarn, not hemp.  i started out with around a pea size, but then i got impatient, and started squeezing out more.

2. make sure your ball is inflated well.  all the balls at wal-mart were on the verge of dying, so i was lucky to even find what i did. 

3. if you use a hemma cord, stretch it out for a day or two.  if you look at the picture with all the arrows (below), you will notice the cord is not straight.

4. for some reason the hemma cord can make my pendant a little lopsided.  refer to photo with the arrows.   i may just need to rethread the cord in a different hole, which leads me to my next number.

5.  when you make your circle on your ball, i would recommend figuring out where the center of that circle would be on the other side.  i would mark a small circle.  this way when you are making your pendant, you can leave a small opening for the electrical wire to go through.  this will also help your pendant to hang nicely instead of being a little lopsided like mine, but hopefully that is a quick fix.

6. as for the large hole in the bottom, i used a regular cereal bowl to trace.  if i were to do this again, i would use a cup.  i think the hole in the bottom can look "odd" at times, but since it's tucked nicely into a closet that no one other than myself goes into, it's just fine.  you can refer to what i consider "odd" in Crafty Nest's photo at the end of the post.

7. other than those things, Crafty Nest did a good job with the tutorial, so you shouldn't run into any problems.

i used the hemma light kit from ikea to hang it, but the cord wanted to drift off and do its own thing.

i decided a little bit of sticky velcro in the corner would do the trick.  i apologize for these crappy shots (off my old camera), but hopefully you can see where and how i applied velcro.
 1. cut small pieces of velcro (i actually cut in half, but that's not in the photos).  2. place one piece in the corner and the other piece on the cord.  3. stick together.

HOW TO HOLD A CORD IN PLACE

i did a few of these along the corner of the walls, and voila!  no retarded cord.

i'm sitting on the fence with this one.  what is it with me and lights???  as usual, i will let it hang in there for a few weeks to test it out.  it doesn't help either that the rocking chair that goes underneath this light is covered in a sheet.   so if this light doesn't stay in owen's room, i will find a place for it. 
i moved it out of owen's room.  it wasn't quite the look i was going for, and since matt and i have no lighting in our largest closet, i moved it there.  it works WONDERS in there too.  i can now see all of our food storage, and i moved all of my fabric in there too. 

i pinned these hemp pendants by Crafty nest awhile back, which comes with a full tutorial.  i didn't have hemp, so i used yarn.

my pendant is way cuter in person, and it was actually fun making it.  you should make one too!  thank you Craft Nest!