Cardboard Ball Chair

Step 10 Remove outer ring from jig and glue to half-sphere

When the paper layers on the ring are completely dry, remove it from the jig as you did the half-sphere but be careful to not let the piece flex too much. It won't have as much structural integrity as the half-sphere.

Test fit the ring portion on the half-sphere without glue. Hopefully the ring fits the half-sphere very closely. Use long thin nails such as paneling nails to help align the pieces for the test fit. These can be reused in the next step.

Apply glue liberally to the mating surfaces. Join the pieces and reinsert the aligning nails, using the previous points. Lay 2 boards at right angles across the rings. Lay weights across the boards while the glue dries.

When the glue is dry and the pieces are securely joined tie the ring and half-sphere together with multiple layers of newspaper and paper-mache. This will help hide the seam and should make the chair stronger. Use the same alternating diagonal layering technique described in a previous step. I used a brown paper painting tape for this step. While it is stronger than newsprint, the latter conforms to curves better and rarely wrinkles.

In preparing for the project I stockpiled a supply of brown paper bags from FreeCycle, but did not use very many. I found the newspaper to be easier to work on curved surfaces, which is every surface of this chair.