If the balls are placed so that they will form the edge of a piece, I just:

1. put the balls on,
2. flux every thing,
3. put large (of course) pieces of solder on them so that the solder is touching both the ball and the plate. I do this by trying to lean the solder on to the ball, but if it falls off and lays flat on the sheet, I just slide it over to touch the ball leaving the solder piece flat.

Remember this part of the sheet will be cut or filed off. I always teach to cut the base plate sheet about 1/4 inch larger than the design, solder every thing on, then cut off that extra sheet, and file it to the design. This makes it so you can use lots of solder on this 1/4 inch and then cut it off.

If the balls are going to be soldered on in the middle of the sheet and you do not want to see a lot of solder around the ball (especially if you are going to oxidize the piece and then polish it), follow these steps:

1. Turn the ball over on your soldering surface so that the flat side is up. (if you made them on a charcoal block, you will have a flat side.
2. Flux them.
3. Place small pieces of solder on each.
4. Melt the solder so that it flows on to the ball.
5. Place the ball on the piece with the flat soldered side down.
6. Flux the piece.
7. Heat the whole piece until the solder melts, and then flows down to the sheet. This is called "sweat soldering."

The balls will be soldered down, and you will have no solder joints to clean up later.

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