I have a 6 inch diameter ball that I want to cover in flat back jewels. The individual jewels are 5mm across. How many jewels will I need to cover the ball?

I can' help with the number, but have done that many times by just buying the number of jewels that I think it will be, and then buying more! You will be gluing forever! My suggestion is to invest in epoxy paste, and set them into it, working very neatly and cleanly. It won't ever come loose and looks very nice. These will make lovely decorations. I'd suggest a 4 inch ball so the job doesn't last so long.

Thanks for the advice about the epoxy paste .. I was considering hot glue .. and yes it will probably take forever!

I'm no good at math, either, but I do like a challenge:) I found a website that has some tables to calculate bead quantities:
http://bergerbeads.net/sizecha...
It comes up with approximately 199-226 5 mm (OK, I read it wrong-it should only be 23 5 mm beads per square inch, not 200) "beads" per square inch depending on the arrangement. This seems like a lot.....

Then, from this page I found on Google:
http://ncalculators.com/area-v...
It says that a 6 inch sphere has approx 453 square inches (seems like a lot, but who am I to argue with Google?).

So, using that information, the estimate is that you need 102, 378 jewels. Which doesn't possibly seem like it could be correct-hope they are cheap:) (my adjusted calculation is about 10,500 5mm jewels to cover a 6" ball)

Using my own math calculations which are definitely NOT guaranteed, I would guess 16 5mm jewels (assuming that a 5mm jewel is approx 1/4 inch) per square inch? Multiply that by the 453 square inches and you get 7,248 jewels, which seems slightly more reasonable to me

Sorry, I'm not very helpful but I at least wanted to try:)

Please don't use hot glue. I did a very elaborate seashell mirror one time using hot glue. It was gorgeous but in about 4 years all of the shells just started dropping off. It seems to get brittle with age and loosen up. I just use it for things that I don't expect to last.

7 thousand Deb (your math seems logical)? Holy Guacamole and Golly Gee Willakers! That's downright SCARY!

Ok .. time to rethink - I got this 'orb' at the Fall Plant Swap. There is a hook in the middle that you can hang something from - a plant wouldn't really work so I was thinking something shiny. Maybe do a few lines of jewels and something else .. I'm open to suggestions!

Definitely won't be using the hot glue Karen.

Xeramtheum said:7 thousand Deb (your math seems logical)? Holy Guacamole and Golly Gee Willakers! That's downright SCARY!

Remember, my math skills are not always to be trusted:)

Anne, I do a lot of gluing jewels to metal. You could cover the outside of the orb frame or just glue a line of jewels down the middle of each bar, and then maybe hang one of the larger air plants in the middle. A nice tillandsia might look good.

I like that idea! Something to think about.

Hey Anne, I bet @RickCorey can tell you just how many jewels you will need.

I had a sphere like that once. Oak Ivy grew up from the bottom and up all round the top forming a topiary.

That sounds like it was very neat, Cheryl. Any pics?

Sorry, no pics. It was a long time ago. I reused the sphere once. Then IDK what happened to it? I used this ivy for the second one and it sort of looked like this.

https://okl1-scene7.insnw.net/...

If I ever find one, I'll try that.

Karen, @Plantmanager Check the floral departments. They often have topiary frames near the wreath frames. I have a monkey frame that I never got to redo. He's hanging naked in a tree. lol Maybe this year. Maybe not. I find topiaries hard to keep moist especially during our hot summers. Have to soak them in a big bucket of water to get the Spagnum Moss wet. But Ivy ust clings on to frames. It should be easy to keep moist.

For the record, the surface area of that 6" sphere is 113.04 sq. in. (the formula for surface area of a sphere is 4 x pi x the radius of the sphere squared). I think Deb got sq cm instead of inches.
Not sure how many of those 5 mm jewels that translates into, but that should be fairly simple to figure out. Hmmm, how many mm in a sq in? Ouch. That's still 3730 jewels, give or take a few, if my calculations are right.

Lol .. too many for me - I'm doing something else for sure!

That's a cool looking orb. Hey, what about a clear globe with sparklies inside? Or a small stained glass piece?

I ended up buying a stainless steel gazing ball.