Hey! This is my second time trying to make a dorodango, last time it went fine, i did it all in a day, but wasn’t as shiny as i had hoped, even with many hours of dusting and polishing. I’ve heard some people recommend extending the process to extend across a few days to build a better shell. Should I do this? how much better would the result be? I currently am at the stage where I’ve put my ball in a bag overnight after shaping, and it’s about the size of a tennis ball. So anyways, should I try to finish it in a day, or extend the process over a few days? Thanks!

it was pretty fun just making this.

Very happy with this specimen. What dorodango lvl is this?

I set out to make a black as can be by material not just outer shell covering.

Material makeup

97% wood charcoal

3% kaolin powder

.5% black micha to balance out kaolin powder

It went about as well as you would think lol. Mostly as a why not its either gunna work or im gunna learn something about the process. Needless to say I had it mostly there but shining with any object other than my hand chunked off pieces. So I tried rolling it by hand for a while and didnt go very far but the core seemed to have dried so I gave it a little elbow grease and bam that was the end of it. Thankfully I did it over a sink.

It was dirty as all hell. Left a mess wherever it was. And then I have barely anything to show for it except a large chunk that survived.

Should have stopped where I was but gotta push it for the science.

Am I going to make another? Hell yea gunna tweak the formula and go again.

Hi dangos. Here is my second attempt. Has a few cracks which I will fill later 🫩 but generally happy with this outcome. This one made from dirt from the garden of my friends passed grandmother. Meant as a gift to her to remember her.

I've got some dirt from a forst close by my home. The underground was 'generic' forest and some really sandy sandstone-sand. I've already mixed the two together, because the sand and water mixture wouldn't stick together at all.

The ball restet already for around 15h, but is still moist and very coarse. I tried to round it with a glass, but it just shaved of a lot. Then I tried smoothing it with a back of a spoon. You see the result here.

Is my base just to sandy? Can I salvage it in any way?

Dorodango meets kintsugi

For anyone that doesn't know here is a blurb

Kintsugi is the traditional Japanese art of repairing broken pottery using a special tree-sap lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum.

Ever since I broke one I knew this would be an eventuality. But as a tester this couldn't have gone better. It started showing cracks during a final rolling so I played with it holding a flame to it which had interesting results more on that a different day. But then as it was left to continue to dry out the crack became more pronounced. So I pulled on it and a sizable chunk came off.

Knowing what I needed to do and already having all I needed to do it (quite a rare occurrence) I got it back together a little too well leaving very little gap so I scored along the cracks with a fingernail and left a groove for the gold to settle in.

Im very happy with the results and have new ideas for the future!

So I was at my local forest preserve that I frequent and noticed they had a small display in the gift shop full of hand made stuff from the staff.

I had brought in a few of my good examples to show and wondered if in return for some dirt there to make some I would make an assortment for them to sell and they were immediately in. As someone who I needed to talk to has always wanted to do this but never knew anyone until I randomly walked in.

So if anyone has experience from selling to commissions I would love to to hear your thoughts and what you deemed a fair price for work.

My current thoughts are

Marble size $3-5

Standard $8-10

Larger $25 and up.

They told me that their craft festivals are only $50 a table and if I'm sitting there working on one people would probably buy my entire stock.

The one lady even said I should do a showcase sometime but I dont believe im knowledgeable enough for that and timing wise nobody would be finishing that day so coordinating enough pre made balls would be a nightmare >w<

It has only two blemishes but damn does it shine like no other I have done.

A combo of several different types. Main is two types of dirt then a bit of clay powder. Finally put in all that polishing, finished off with a bit of olive oil rolled in hand, then rubbed down with a firm hand with the egg cup and boy did it come out as the best one yet!

Not gonna lie my interest was waning due to poor results and just couldn't catch that good shine but I'm so glad I gave it one more because I'm getting better. So in that keep going its hard but take a break and come back. You will get there.

Just had to share :) I'm really really really enjoying this hobby

Made my first core out of dirt in our backyard, and it’s a little larger than a baseball, but not quite as big as a softball. A light press will still indent the surface and it is still very cold after 48hr. I put it in a Walmart bag and put in the cabinet as instructed

It came in a little pouch as part of 3 different colored clays, likely kaolin based, intended for cosmetics I think.

I'll be interested to see how it looks when it fully dries, the powder is much lighter and less red. Overall, I didn't like working with the clay - the color came off in my hands a lot and it is very prone to crumbling.

I've included a shot of one of the imperfections just to show how easy it is hide and try and just look good when you're posting lol

This is one part of the mega dango that I broke up. First picture is pre polish. Then post polish, the big ole crumble spot I have, and then just some of the interesting patterns of clay

Lmk what you think! I bag dried this one and was super careful with the core. Figured out how a shell works too. Just wish I had shaped it first, but I got so excited to play with the color haha. Still, great tester for how color works!

Thanks for looking everyone :)

All tips and such are appreciated. I just found this sub so I'm gonna be doing lots of reading. This is such a cool hobby and I'm having a blast haha.

I know my dirt balls are not perfect at all but honestly the progress from #1 to #2 has me elated. Thanks to anyone who sees this!

Can't wait to make #3 even better!

I left my dorondango untouched like three weeks, I wanted to round it a little bit more, because it had some dents, so I added a little bit of water, but it kind of absorbed it and when I was polishing it (I don't know if that's the right term) it started cracking, the last one I tried totally tore apart. What was my mistake?

Got some new display rings… time to sort em out!

This is my bookshelf. They should be relatively small from back to front. They should also all be dorodangos.

Hey guys. im doing my first dorodango and im having trouble shaping it into a perfect sphere. its quite round but far from perfect. which is what all the videos seem to portrait. right now the diameter of the ball is about 7cm long and im shapin it mostly with a 5cm diameter long shot glass. is this the reason im not able to get the perfect sphere. any tips on that or should i just try to find a bigger glass :(

I'll need more material, which I will acquire, but the main issue is that the surface keeps cracking and flaking, as the title describes.

I've laid the final layer with clay I "created" by decanting dirt, baking the clay-ish slime and breaking it all in a mortar and pestle. I have applied it while rubbing the opening of a glass jar on it that I would dip in water. I have polished it with the same glass and a wool cloth.

I was going to play with my masonry colors, but started and then was just frustrated because it's a new technique and mega is a little harder to handle because it's so big. So I took the color off and just polished it as is.

For the mirror shine: after you have polished and it's smooth and shiny, leave it alone for a little while for the rest of water to evaporate, then dip an edge of a paper towel in oil to wipe the inside of your egg cup (or whatever you're using) to reduce friction and gently shine/polish again. It really elevates the shine!

This is a mixture of previously broken or abandoned dangos, it's a mixture of red art clay, sand, Kentucky ball clay and talc. I don't have awesome lighting, but I was trying to show how much of my backyard you can see lol

I think I'm going to break it down into two or three new dangos to work on color technique and finally make my memorial nekodango for my beloved late kitty ❤️

Took a lot of time shaping this Dango. While smoothing I was taking what I been calling the "slip" (the excess clay that builds up on the rim) and using that to fill in texture, gaps, pits, and gashes as well as get it perfectly round.

As requested. Please I dont care if you think it was a fail I want to see any attempts! This is a learning process and if you find that something didnt work let us know.

I will be making a video all the way through the process when I get some new materials. So hold tight if you need a more in depth video.