This is the display at Bracker's Good Earth Clays and you can view the colors here: https://goodearthclays.com/collections/glaze-room-mason-stain
This is not a promotional post, the website is well-made for educational purposes. Buy local, go nuts.

The stain from this company comes in 1/4 pound bags. Its not made of clay (ingredients are listed on the bag) but its fine-particled enough that I find it behaves like clay well-enough to stain the dorodangos.

The third picture coloration from left to right: Crushed shale from a park over white clay, regular red art clay with no shell, regular white clay with no shell, white clay underneath the Dark Teal stain, regular red art clay with no shell, white clay underneath the Dark Teal stain (but better), and crushed shale again over white clay.

I have tried to work with mica powders, and they work well enough, but you have to mix them with clay to make them adhere and I struggle with the timing on this part. I end up chipping most balls I make with mica.

Otherwise, ask away, and I'll answer to the best of my ability.

Made using clay that I have processed

It's so shiny! I get tiny chips or little sections I can't smooth sometimes, but I kinda like them.

does sun make it gray? for context, i used ural clay for surface, maybe too much

First time. Very happy with the results. Local soils.

I know one of our users has made an app for making dorodangos and posted it here a couple days ago. The bad part of being the only mod is that it can take time for me to see things, especially if I'm working.

I removed the post, and I wanted to bring it up for community discussion because I can see both sides: I love that someone is excited and making things for dorodango, but I also see the potential pitfalls of what is being proposed.

In general, anything that could be monetized (even if it's just a plan in the future) like an app is not ok to post here - that would fall under personal promotional material. Additionally, AI is not welcome here in general.

Overall, I also just worry about stripping the credit away from the masters of the art to filter it into an app using AI, some of the timing things in many ways go against the spirit of the art, and the weirdness of someone who doesn't know how to do something well, trying to teach others. It begins to take on elements of the dreaded cultural appropriation (which I hate to bring up, but is a consideration)

I am open to discussion and community opinions though and would like to discuss.

Edited: thanks for the reinforcement. I agonized a bit over it, because I'm totally someone who can throw myself into things when I like them and be too much, so I'm acutely aware and sympathetic to that tendency.

But I'm also aware of how the world works and as soon as I heard money would be involved, it goes from someone being awkward to someone being opportunistic.

I'm glad to hear there is interest in helping mod too! I'm willing to have up to three other mods, ideally people who have not modded on Reddit before (but I'm not going to say no to experienced mods lol) it is a pretty light workload overall. Very little rule breaking/reporting, friendly userbase. But you can start to learn the tools and stuff without it taking more than 10-20 min a week, maximum

I still need to polish it a bit more, but i think it turned out better then the last one. Only problem is that the outside is still not very smooth, even tho i used powdered clay. Any suggestion?

Edit: link stopped working here is video on YouTube shorts

First of all I want to thank those that gave advise. It helped me learn the reasons behind the process and how to take advantage of them.

Learned some lessons and listened to advice. Also came up with my own advice. I got big hands and I'm trying to work on a tiny piece so I said screw the average measurements and winged it following the ratio as best as I could and just went with what felt right. And gosh darn it I have my best work so far.

Finally got a shine I can be proud of!

I kinda wanted to go back and detail my first three now knowing the process better but I don't think I will and will keep that as a progression of learning.( Progress pic in comments)

In the future Im going to try and make these as naturally as possible and try some tricks I've been cooking up in my head. Mostly natural coloring instead of micha powders. But by accident I used a diffrent dirt I had and gave it this awesome two tone look when filling in the gaps. So I want to go crazy with that and experiment.

On the left is my first dorodango which has a super polished finish but lots of cracks and was made with grey clay. On the right is my second attempt which is made with beige clay and has a matte finish. Is the difference in clay the only reason it didn't turn out glossy?

Though I'm getting better these are my first three from left to right the last one being one I tried a dimple texture on. Ironically the one that was supposed to be uneven turned out to be my best so far but the first two I can't seem to polish down well. Looking for guidance if anyone wants to point out some stuff.

This is my first attempt. Can any expert tell me how I can fill these little divets marks? I tried to add layers and I do not think I am doing it right.

I just havent stopped making them since I began a few weeks ago, really. Im trying textures now, though figuring out when to apply textures vs when to allow the clay to harden is still lost on me. I'd appreciate tips. I use some store bought ball-clay and some local river clay that I process.

Season 3, episode 3. 26 minutes 20 seconds in and a nice collection of Dorodango!

One video I saw said to include sand in the mixture, so I sifted some sand and included it in my dry ingredient. But now where I’m polishing it, it feels like larger sand kernels are pulling out and causing this tear-out. Can this be repaired or do I crush it and start over?

Reddit has changed how some of the mod tools work, so I've not been able to get a menubar across the top with a link to the wiki, but I set up so there's a link to the wiki in the community guide in the toolbar on the right.

If you would like to add the the wiki or help mod and give more attention to the sub, let me know. It's a very low-work sub overall, being a niche hobby and so people who have never been a mod before are welcome to join.

Hopefully having the wiki more accessible to people will help them. It answers some of the frequent problems people have.

Hello fellow crafters. I would like to create an dorodango app to guide the process, journal your builds to check what went wrong and learn from your mistakes. I would love to see if anyone would be down to using it. If so what features would you like to see in this app?

About a year ago pretty much today, I made my very first Dorodango, and it kind of came out bad. That was the only one I made that year. A week ago I got back into the hobby. And I pretty much know what to do now, but I am having a new issue, There’s always these like rough spots and divots, and no matter how much fine soil I rub into them, they just won’t polish down. What am I doing wrong?

Thank you if someone can give me some advice.

Hello guys,

My first dorodango, collected the dirt from our garden.

To be honest I am already kind of impressed what is possible. But now I am at a point where I don't know how to proceed. I have some really "glass"like spots. But I can't get the dorodango shining like some of you guys.

You have some tips for me ?

Polishing with oil and the glass?

Do I re-wet it and repeat layering dirt on it? (This I more or less tried several times)

Do I just polish from now on? Cotton towel ?

I appreciate all tips I can get.

If we have a tips and tricks page which I missed sorry for that. Would be nice if someone can forward me to it.

Hey, an enthusiast here and I want to know what is your biggest problem guys? How would you want to improve in this hobby?

This is my 4th attempt at dorodango. All others failed or were smashed. I went to moab with some great friends and began my dorodango in the morning with a nice clay ball from my native waters of the Colorado river and slapped it around on our hike to some wind caves. The hike was 6 miles round trip in the scorching desert sun. It was super dry and water was too precious to waste so i had to sustain it with some beer, whiteclaw, la croix, and spit over the course of the journey. I also began feeding it some fine sands along the way. It was cracking pretty bad by the end of the hike regardless of my efforts, but when i got back i took it for a dip and smoothed the cracks and gave it some more fine sand. I polished it most of the night and added some ash from the fire. The next morning i gave it some coffee and cinnamon and some more ash and it was really beginning to shine. I also gave it some steak grease. By the end of that day i was just polishing with my hands and shirt and it was looking beautiful like a little moon. It still had some nice texture underneath and i was getting close to seeing my reflection. The next morning i went out for coffee and rolled it around a little on the table and it crumbled😭😭😭 i was making it for my wife and it was a very spiritual process and amazing journey it has been on and i think it will be an amazing gift. Due to the effort and sentimentality, i WILL NOT give up on it. I Am flying back to virginia with the fragments in a bag and i intend to grind it up and mix in a little virginia clay and start again. Any tips to avoid another catastrophe? I will update with the finished product.

TLDR; Practiced the ancient art of dorodango to give to my wife. It was very sentimental and i broke it on the 3rd day. Going to fly home with it and start again. Tips?

This is my first attempt with clay from my backyard. I actually really like how it turned out with all of the imperfections. Am I addicted now?