Dorodango

Dorodango (Japanese: 泥だんご, lit. “mud dumpling”) is a Japanese art form in which earth and water are combined and moulded, then carefully polished to create a delicate shiny sphere.

The process has been refined into the art of the hikaru (“shining”) dorodango (光る泥だんご), which has a glossy surface.

A core of the ball is made of basic mud, which has been carefully shaped by hand to be as round as possible.

This core is left to dry, and then methodically and carefully dusted with finely sifted soil to create a crust several millimeters thick around the core.

This step may be repeated several times, with finer and finer grains of dirt in order to create a smooth and shiny surface.

A cloth then may be used to gently polish the surface.

The dorodango, once completed, may look like a polished stone sphere, but it is still very fragile.

The process requires several hours and careful focus so as not to break the ball.

Materials

• Dry earth
• Water
• Plastic bag
• Cloth
• Patience

Process

Get dry dirt / soil and add water until it’s damp and muddy. Grab a handful and start shaping it into a ball. Try as hard as possible to squeeze the water out as you go.

Focus on making a round ball. When you have more or less a round ball, take some dry dirt / soil and sprinkle a small pile of it onto the ball and shake / wipe it off. This will leave the dry dirt stuck to the ball.

Keep doing this making sure to retain its round shape. It’ll take you a little while. When you think you are done, just keep going a little bit longer and then gently blow off any remaining dry dirt.

Put your ball in the plastic bag and seal it tight by tying a knot in it. Leave overnight for more water to get out of the ball.

When you remove the ball the next day, spend some time adding some dry earth to the ball again. Then coat your hands in the dry earth getting them dusty and then rubbing them all over the ball for half hour or so.

Finally, you can start to polish the ball with a cloth until it gets a lovely shine.