Inside a Baseball

[Bpm0014]

Ouch.

[khkco4bls]

ouch is right how nice was the ball

[Runscott]

It was horrid, but the 'Mantle/Berra' panel was good.

A dog got hold of the ball (way before I bought it), and ripped one of the panels to pieces. It was bad enough that I just got stink-faces when I brought it to shows. I purchased it with the intention of replacing the worst parts, but it didn't take me long to figure out that not just me, but NO ONE had the skills to do such a thing. Fortunately, I paid '1956 Mantle autograph' price for it, so the goal at this point is to salvage all I can from the ball, and create a nice display.

I literally felt nauseous as I cut up the ball this morning. And after testing one of the panel pieces - lightly spraying with distilled water prior to pressing - I got nauseous again when it began yellowing in random spots and wrinkling when I tried to flatten it.

So far, kind of a horror, but anyone who knows me knows that I'll work on this until I have success.

Here are the separated pieces:

[Runscott]

Here's the mock-up of the desired final piece:

[baseballart]

The baseball deconstruction inspired the artist at one point. (Harder to sell than the ubiquitous Mickey Mantle paintings)

[Runscott]

Now the one on the right looks like mine did, only yours is better.