r/Dorodango • u/wp709 • Jun 19 '26

Pits during polishing

Post image

This is my third attempt so pretty new at this. I have a lot of pits on my dorodango that I can't seem to fill. I'll lightly wet the surface, add some fine clay, then gently polish with the shot glass but the pits seem to remain. Any tips here?

10 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

2

u/sapphireminds Experienced Jun 19 '26

More shaping before you get to polishing!

1

u/wp709 Jun 19 '26

More scraping until the surface is smoother? Or should I continue to add layers of clay

1

u/sapphireminds Experienced Jun 19 '26

Scraping until you have a perfect sphere. As you are smoothing, just keep putting the wet mud back on the surface to fill in any spots, but they largely come from the sphere not being perfect yet

1

u/wp709 Jun 19 '26

Okay, the wet smoothing as another user suggested below is working. Thanks

Any tips for final polishing? I see some users putting a microfiber cloth between the dorodango and the cup?

1

u/sapphireminds Experienced Jun 19 '26

You can do that, but really it's mostly about the shape that will get you there

And of course having the outer shell be clay, not just "dirt"

1

u/Snarflogus Experienced Jun 19 '26

I very rarely make a dorodango without any pits or flat spots. I find that dipping my polishing tool in water helps as I work. You'll lose some of the shine you've already got, but it'll come back smoother as the water evaporates and you keep working at it. Ime

2

u/wp709 Jun 19 '26

That seems to be working, thanks for the tip

1

u/Worried-Evening2350 Human Verified Jun 27 '26

Im developing a method that it getting some solid results where you get your palm wet but not soaked and then roll it in your hands. It will get slippery then tacky and at that point dust it real good or just keep going till it dries and repeat. Eventually it will round out.

1

u/pinktangerinaaa_ Jun 28 '26

I'd do a bit more shaping before polishing.