Hi Janice! Welcome.....I am lazy,so the way I do it is to "frost" my BB with silicone using a plastic disposable knife, then stick the half marbles on. I do it in sections, and it sets up really fast, so you get the ball finished quickly and I hardly ever get silicone on the marbles. Use a bowl or something similiar to hold the BB while you glue,or even a wadded up towel works great. I just passed up some bowling balls at a thrift store( kicking self) that were only a dollar each all because my DH had a fish-flopping seizure and said we didn't NEED any more gazing balls in the yard! Can you imagine???? One was a beautiful hot pink swirly color :) Usually he goes along with whatever I want.

Hi Janice
Did you try sealing it with a polyeruathane(sp) coating? I find it seems to brighten them up a bit. IMHO

I use Plumber's Goop to put my glass globs on. I think it dries clearer than silicone. I would prefer to use Lexel, but with a 2 week curing time, it's just not practical for BBs. It's good that you are working with a dull ball when you start (means you got all the wax off and the glue should stick). When finished, you could spray some glossy poly on it and you should be good to go.

We avoided getting silicone every where by doing it with two people. DH squirted the silicone while I but on the stones. Mine are shiny. We have made many and given them as gifts.

Hmmmm, I never had the silicone dull the marbles even after wiping it off. You might try some Goo Gone. You can buy it at Wally World in the paint supply isle.

Hi again .. thanks for the welcome to the forum. I recently discovered this sight. I really enjoy the pictures & ideas. Back to the bb .. I didn't mean to imply that the bb was permanently dulled. There's just a film on that I can't get off without rubbing & killing my arms. I've tried mineral spirits, rubbing alcohol, paste wax & rubbing compound. I haven't tried spraying it with anything when finished. Do any of you put excess on the glass pieces so when you push the piece down excess oozes out & fills in the gaps? I might try smearing the silicone on with the plastic knife. Thanks again. Janice

Well, if the stones are not as shiny as you would like them to be you might consider spraying the ball with some clear polyurethane in a glossy finish. That might help get the shine you are wanting. However, since you've already used paste wax on the ball you might have some problems with the poly adhering. I usually spray my BBs that I do with the poly anyway just to help protect them a little.

Janice
I had the same problem when I got an idea to use the calk gun to apply the silicone.I wasn't very good at it and my whole ball turned out dull. I ended up putting that one way in the back yard. I tried a different method of filling a syringe with the silicone then using it to apply the marbles.Works better. I can't answer your question about how to get the silicone off the tops of the BB....I tried goop remover and it got under the marbles and they fell off. I replaced the ones that fell off and just hid the ugly ball somewhere that anyone can get close enough to see it's dull and sticky looking.
Good luck
:o)

I'm not an expert at BB's having not even finished my first one but I've made lots of totems so have used GE Silicon II a lot. The trick with it is to not use too much. Apparently the bond is stronger if there is not as much glue. For my BB I just squeezed out a dab on the marble and stuck it on. After doing a few pieces I learned how much to put on so it just squooshed out to the edge of the marble piece.

Gotta get that thing finished this year!