The Art of Dorodango - Shiny Mud Balls
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
My First Dorodango
Mud Balls - Awesome!
After seeing a dorodango featured on Mythbusters (End With a Bang, November 12, 2008), I became quite intrigued by the concept. It fascinated me that using nothing more than average dirt, one could produce something of such beauty and shininess. Shortly later, I came across this site which gave me some hints and eventually led me to this site.
The Quest
I went out and dug up a bag of dirt (it’s winter, the ground is hard.) After letting it dry out for a while, I began with my core, which took me about an hour. I put it in a bag to cure overnight.
The Next Day
I slept in late. Waking up around 10, I began the final capsule and polishing process. Around an hour and a bunch of rubbing later, I took the photo featured above. Success!
Reflections
There were many things I would do differently next time. I’ll describe them so that hopefully, if anybody takes up this wonderful and calming hobby, they will know. The first and probably biggest issue with what I did was the quality of dirt. You should let it dry out, sift it, and get out all the rocks. otherwise, you get something like mine, with little bits of hard stones sticking out. Second of all, don’t get your dirt on anything white. Couches, towels, rugs, shirts; they’ll never be the same. Third, make a bigger ball. Although the photo has little scale, the ball is actually about the size of a golf ball. It was quicker, but smaller. Oh, and don’t use contaminated soil, it made mine smell nasty.
So, take a couple hours with a pile of dirt, make a dorodango, and have a happy soon-to-be new year!
Photo, and other works in this post , are under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.
