George, the Golf Ball Ant - Recycling Fun Craft for All the Family to Get Involved With.

This is the story of an adventurous, giant ant called George...

George loved the time of the day where the sun started getting low and the colours lit up the sky... He often went on an adventure with the hope that he would get a glimpse of that great glowing ball going down before the colours came out...

He would scamper past the kitchen window, scurry along the ledge past the lounge... He would climb his favourite tree to see if it is time yet for the sun to go down... Then along the rocks and up on top of the letterbox where he always got the best view...

There he would sit and wait and dream and watch as the beautiful sunset painted the sky with its spectacular show of yellows and oranges, pinks and reds...

Maybe you are like George and enjoy spending time experiencing the beauty that surrounds us... Maybe you'd like to make a giant ant called George yourself and sit with him while he watches the sunset from his favourite place...

Follow the steps with the help from mum or dad and you can have a George or Barry, Fiona or Cindy for yourself...

Have fun together as a family making a giant golf ball ant for each one of you, they are great for exploring the garden with, or lining them up on the window sill, or sitting in the best place to capture that beautiful sunset..

Materials

• 3 Clean Used Golf Balls ( If you don't have any, try a second hand shop, as they often sell them for very cheap,10-50c each)
• Tie wire/ Brickie's wire (available at your local hardware)
• Glue (hot glue gun, super glue, epoxy glue), but make sure dad or mum help out when using the glue.
• Etch Primer
• Black Paint or Red Paint whatever you have at home ( I used spray paint, acrylic paint of any kind is all you need )
• Paper to protect your surface when painting
• Permanent Marker Pen

Tools

• Needle Nose (pointy nose) Pliers
• Electric Drill and 2mm (1/32") drill bit

PPE (not pictured)

• Safety Glasses
• Painters Mask
• Vinyl Gloves

Time :- 45 minutes - 1 hour including drying time.

The first step in bringing George to life is take your three clean used golf balls and your marker pen and mark out where you will drill the holes to place his legs, joints and antennae...

Work out which ball will be used for the head, which one for the body and which one for the tail piece.

Marking

Starting with the "tail ball", you need to mark a point where you will drill a hole to put a wire in and join it to the "body ball".

• This point you are about to mark is not too important as to where it is, so pick a point and mark it on the ball. Once you have marked the tail section, do the same for the ball you have chosen to be the head. Once done, it should look like the first picture above.

• Now take your "body ball" and you need to mark three spots on each side of the ball, all at the same level, and a mark for where we join the tail and another where we join the head. ( I bought some balls that had lines on both sides to help people aim in golf. This made it easy to get them in line with each other. If you don't have that, then simply draw a line all the way around the ball with your marker. Use a ruler if you need to, but simply join the dimples around the ball with the one next to it until you meet back up again...

• Just like in the second photo on this step, mark three points on the same line, these are for the legs. Then flip the ball over and mark three more dots so that they are the same as on the other side of the ball. It does not have to be exact, just close. Now you have your marks for the legs done, it is time to mark where you will join the head and the tail balls to the body ball.

• Decide which side of the ball will be the head and which one the tail. Take your marker and mark a dot above the line of the marks you made for the legs (just like the 4th picture). Turn it all the way around until the mark you just made is directly opposite to where you are now holding it. Mark a dot below the line for where we will attach the tail ball. (just like the the photo above)

We still haven't marked out where the antennae go, but to make it easy we will do it when we drill the hole for the neck.

Drilling

Drills are dangerous tools to use, so if you are inexperienced or young, please make sure your dad or mum are with you to help do this part.

Grab your drill and your ball you want to use for the head, and using your 2mm (1/32") drill bit, drill into the ball where you marked out the ball before. Drill down about half way through the ball and leave the drill bit in the ball and turn the drill off.

Make sure you hold the ball securely and do this with care. If unsure, get dad or mum to help. With the golf ball on the end of the drill, mark two dots like in the photo for the antennae. Make it so that they are the same distance from where the drill bit is and that they are on the top of the ball...

Taking the balls one at a time, drill a hole into them where you have placed the marks on the balls. Make sure you don't drill all the way through. Drill up to half way through. If you are scared you will go too far, put a bit of sticky tape on the drill bit at the depth you want to drill. When drilling down, once you hit the tape, back the drill out and move onto the next hole. Put them aside once finished and get ready for step two.

Now that you have finished marking and drilling the holes, it is time to take your tie wire (or brickies wire) and your pliers and start making the six legs, the two antennae and the two joiners.

All pliers have a snipping section below the "teeth" section. Use this to cut to length the wire needed to make each part. Start with the two joiner pieces. These only need to be around 50mm (2") long. If you are not strong enough to cut through the wire, give it a good squeeze, maintain that pressure and then bend the wire up and down until it snaps. Once you have cut the two joiners, it is time to make the legs.

Making the Legs

• Start by bending the wire to make the feet. They can be as long as you want them to be, but remember to keep them in-proportion with the rest of the leg... Go up about 50mm (2") and make another bend in the opposite direction to the way you bent the feet.
• 
  
• Using your pliers again, cut the top of the legs so that they are more than double the length that you made the feet. If not sure, check the photos above...
• 
  
• It is important to make three sets of two legs that are the same length (refer second photo, make sure they are the same length). Make one set the shortest, (around 50mm or 2") and then a pair a bit longer and then another pair longer still, just like the last photo.
• 
  
• Repeat the process until you have made three pairs of legs all at different lengths.
• 
  
• make sure that they look like the legs in the photo above.

Making the Antennae

Take your pliers and wire again and clamp onto the very end of the wire. Wind it around the nose of the pliers until it makes a loop, then slide it off the end and cut the length to please. Make them about one and a half times the height of the golf ball.

Repeat the process to make two of them, ready to glue in on the next step.

Now that you have got all the holes drilled and your six legs, two antennae and two joiners cut, it is time to make the magic happen and put it all together.

This is the part of the process where you will need to use glue of some kind. Glues can give off fumes, so make sure you are in a well ventilated place. I used super glue, but I am an experienced adult that has used it safely many times before. You can use a hot glue gun to put it all together, or some other kind of epoxy glue, but whatever you use, make sure if you are younger, that you get dad or mum involved as glues can be dangerous things...

Starting with your "Head Ball", take one of the joiners and put a little glue on its end and push it into the hole you drilled. Make sure you have enough hanging out to put into the "Body Ball".(refer second photo). Do the same for the joiner on the "Tail Ball" and glue it in place. While you have been doing the "Tail Ball", the glue has been drying on the "Head Ball". Once dry, grab the "Head ball" by the joiner and attach the antennae. Refer to the pictures if you are not sure.

Putting on the Legs

Grab the pair of legs that are the shortest length. Taking one of the legs and adding a bit of glue on the end of the longer bent section, push the longer part (the top) of the leg into the last hole on the end closest to the hole for the tail (the one that is below the line of the legs). Take the other leg of the same length and adding some glue, push it into the hole that is on the opposite side of the body ball to the leg you just put in.

Repeat this process putting the longest legs in the centre holes, and the middle length ones in the front holes near the hole that is above the line of the legs for the head. Refer photos if not sure.

Now that you have done the head, tail and legs, it is time to put on the body.

Putting the body together

Make sure that when you are doing this that you join the head with the hole that is above the line of the legs and not the one below the line of the legs. That way your George will be always looking up and not down in the dumps. Holding your "Body Ball", put a bit of glue on the end of the joiner for either your head or tail and push them together. Then repeat that same process for the other ball left over.

Now your George should look like a giant white ant. It is time to give him (or her) the colour you have chosen. You can make your ant black, brown, red, green purple or any other colour that you desire. I chose black to match the small black ants we have in our garden.

Make sure that the surface on which you are going to paint on is well protected with some scrap paper. tape it down if you need to make sure that it does not blow away.

This step needs to be done in the open air, or a well ventilated place. If you want to make sure you have proper PPE, you can wear a painters mask, gloves and safety glasses.

Priming

All painted projects, need the proper preparation to ensure that the paint does not peel off later on. Any acrylic undercoat or primer would work and in fact many spray paints have now got a primer built into its paint formula. I chose an Etch Primer as it doesn't matter what surface you use it on, it will always make a good surface for your main paint to attach to.

Make sure you shake your spray paints as per instructions and follow all instructions to ensure safe use of these paint products.

• Laying the ant on its back, spray the belly section. Make sure you do not over spray and make it run, make smooth sweeping movements with the spray primer and add light layers until the underneath is fully covered. Flip the ant over and prime the top section. Once completed it should look something like the second photo above. Ensure that all of your ant is sprayed including the wire legs, antennae and joiners

Etch Primer will dry in 15 minutes. If it is a bit of a damp day or you want to speed up the process, grab a hair dryer and blow cool or hot air on the ant until it is dry.

Painting

Now that the primer is dry, repeat the same process with your can of preferred spray paint colour. If using a pot of acrylic paint, then grab your paint brush and get painting. Paint the belly first, making sure you paint all that you can see from that perspective. Flip it over and then paint the top section.

Once completed, if using spray paint, you can wait 1 minutes and re-apply a second coat if you so desire.

Once the coloured paint is dry and you are happy with it all, if you want to add a bit of extra character, feel free to glue googly eyes on your ant, paint white dots for eyes or add a mouth of your design and choosing. Make it your own design and use your imagination... I wanted George to be simple so that anyone can make him.

Once fully dry, you can adjust the legs and joiners to make your ant look just the way you want them too.

Now that you have made your giant golf ball ant, give it a name, and adopt it into your family.

Take them on adventures, or just simply sit with them and watch the sunsetting in the early evening.

Thankyou for taking the time to build this project. Please add photos of what you have built so we can all enjoy your new family member....