Paper Sphere Work & Statement

As a base, I wanted the paper sphere I created to be as spherical as possible.  I had the idea that I would make it perfectly round and as smooth as I could, and then think about surface details.  As evidenced by my research, I had some fairly intricate things in mind. Ultimately, however, I think I appreciated the simplicity of the smooth sphere with the face that I looked at before I began.  As I quickly learned, constructing a perfectly round sphere out of wrapped paper is incredibly difficult, and I think even as I was still building it I sort of gave up on the idea.  I knew that to keep it round, I would have to make it rather dense, because the looseness of the paper was one of the main things causing lumps and protrustions.  I also knew that that would take a lot of paper and a lot of time, so while I made an effort to wrap the core of my ball fairly evenly, I accepted the fact that it would not be very round.  I did, however, make it rather smooth.  I layered white paper mache (but with glue) over the ball until the white was opaque (the core was brown paper) and any ragged edges had been bandaged.  This process was lengthened by the fact that my ball stuck to my work surface several times and had to be patched where it had torn.  Most of my class time over the six weeks of studio work days was spent layering paper mache on this now very lumpy, alien form.  Somewhere between beginning to cover the outer layer in white paper and the first full layer, I decided that the surface detail I wanted to have was simply a hole in one side, so I cut a circle and then tore the insides of the ball until I reached the centre.  At first I thought I might like to have a very clean cut hole in the side, but I realised that this would be very difficult with the way the ball was constructed, and I also really liked how it looked torn.  It resembles some kind of nest or hive.  After applying several layers of white paper to the surface of the ball, I decided to cut the hole bigger, and to embrace the irregular shape of the sphere by allowing the edges of the hole to follow the contour of the surface.  Once the ball was fully covered and no longer stuck to my work surface, I cleaned up the cut around the edge of the hole, creating a crisp, smooth break between the smooth and subtly shiny white outer surface and the ragged, porous, organic brown layers of the inside of the ball.  I decided to emphasise this contrast further by coating the exterior of the ball with non-diluted glue, this time specifically using the glossy variety of mod podge.  The "sphere" now has a top and a bottom due to the way it sat on my work surface and developed a flat side.  It is meant to be displayed on the floor, although for my photos, I took it out to a field where it can pose as some kind of alien egg structure.  I have affectionately nick-named it "the egg."  It is very organic, though, and like my assemblage, I felt that the photos should contextualise it somewhat and that it should interact with its environment.