How to Make Dorodango (Japanese Shiny Mud Ball Art)

Learn the art of Dorodango, Japanese shiny mud balls.

This amazing polishing technique can turn a ball of dirt into a ornament worthy of the mantle, handmade gifts and a gorgeous conversation starter.

Let me show you how to take mud from your own backyard and transform it into a beautiful shiny orb, worthy of adoration.

Let's get started!

WHAT IS DORODANGO?

Dorodango is a Japanese art and meditative hobby of hand-molding and polishing soil to create a smooth, shiny mud ball.

It involves layering fine dirt and water, then gradually shaping and buffing the mud ball until it achieves a lustrous, marble-like finish.

This is the process that the Mythbusters used years ago to prove that you can, in fact, polish a turd.

I heard of dorodango years ago and had never tried it for myself.

I though it would be difficult, need the perfect balance of sand and clay, and be expensive...buying powdered clay or fine sand.

Turns out, this craft is amazingly cheap as dirt, and was surprisingly easy to make.

Polishing my dirt ball took about 30 minutes.

BEFORE AND AFTER:

I almost don't believe it myself!

This regular dirt ball easily becomes super shiny and lustrous--with a nearly mirrored surface!

Make it extra fun by adding a little glitter or mica powder for a fun finishing touch.

My husband, our oldest son and myself sat at the kitchen table for a couple hours polishing up all these dorodango.

It was fun and we stopped at varying levels of shine, adding glitter or mica to some of the balls and leaving others a little bit rough.

Here's the first one I made.

It's about the size of a tennis ball and weighs 1 pound.

It has these really cool cracks in the shiny dirt finish that I just love, these almost look like planets.

You can make these as smooth and perfect as you desire, me, I like them to look a little dirty.

SUPPLIES NEEDED FOR DORODANGO:

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• 4 Cups of Clay (we just dug this up in our yard, nothing special)
• 2 Cups of Sand (nothing special)
• Something to break up the pieces with (hammer or a rock)
• Sieve of some kind (we thrifted ours)
• Bowl to hold it in
• Water
• Mason Jar, egg cup or jigger
• Mica Powder
• Glitter

Look around your house and see if you have what you need to get started, there's really not a lot of special equipment needed!

If you do not have clay in your yard check out this option on amazon.

Orb Display Stand

STEP 1: BREAK UP CLAY

Our clay was dry and hard, thanks to Utah's dessert climate.

We could have soaked it in water, but opted to just break it up with a hammer.

Then sieve out the clay pieces, so just the finest pieces are in the mix.

STEP 2: CLAY AND SAND MIXTURE

The next step is to make the clay mixture, place 4 cups of sieved clay in a bowl and add 2 cups of sand.

We had some extra sand from a project we were working on, so we used that.

Mix up the sand and the clay together, the dry earth fine particles are easy to mix up.

Then add one cup of water and mix it in with your hands.

You may need more water, but begin with just enough to get it all moistened because too much water causes other issues.

STEP 3: PACK A BALL

Squeeze and compress the clay in your hands to make a ball as tightly as you can.

This absolutely brings back memories of mud pancakes in the backyard as a kid.

If the ball is too dry, it will crumble and fall apart, so add a little more water than what I did, so it's more like potters clay or a cookie dough consistency.

These are a little too dry...not quite enough water for a dorodango ball.

So we quickly dipped them in some water and rolled it around in our hands, giving it an even consistency.

STEP 4: DRY OVERNIGHT

Now set the dirt balls on something soft, like a soft cloth, a towel or a bed of sand, so the orbs stay round.

Let them dry for about a day or overnight...some people put them in a plastic bag, we just left them in our grow box.

STEP 5: DORODANGO POLISHING

Now it's time to begin the rough polishing.

Set up with a towel and a bowl of wet clay, some people use clay powder, but we found a slip of our backyard sieved clay worked great.

Have a bowl of water too.

You will also need a pint size mason jar or a similar glass jar.

Begin by quickly dipping the ball of mud right into the water bowl and pull it out, surprisingly this only adds surface moisture and keeps the center strong.

In your dominate hand, hold a mason jar with the opening against the ball, the jar should be about the diameter of the surface of the ball.

Roll the jar around the mud ball in a circular motion.

This motion alone will shape the ball into stunning orb shape by removing excess dirt and creating the perfect sphere.

As the dirt ball begins to dry, dip the mason jar in a little water and then continue the circular motion with the smooth surface of the jar moving the finer dirt and finer particles around the surface of the sphere.

If you notice a big hole or crack in the wet dirt ball, use the clay slip to fill it in.

If you add the natural clay to the ball, depending on how much you add, you may need to set it on a soft surface for a few minutes to let it solidify.

In the meantime, you can begin rough polishing a second dorodango...you can't just make one!

STEP 6: FINE POLISHING

As the ordinary mud begins to form a smooth surface, you will "feel" the surface of the dorodango change, and begin to shine.

Here is where I switched down to a smaller too for more detailed polishing.

I am using a ceramic egg cup we found thrifting.

At this point you can still add water, but you will not need to add any more water for long.

STEP 7: MICA POWDER OR GLITTER (OPTIONAL)

Once your ball is smooth and round, and doesn't need more water, this is the time to add glitter or mica powder to it.

Mica powder is easy to just lightly dust on with your finger on a few places on the orb.

Glitter will flake off as you polish, but a few pieces will embed in the mud, so add some here and there.

The mica powder is super fine and leaves a subtle color shifting value.

Continue with the smaller glass, polishing the shiny dorodango until it has an even higher shine.

It's amazing to watch the transformation of ordinary mud into a gorgeous work of art, it looks like cut and polished gemstones!

The final step is to simply decide when to stop polishing your own dorodango.

I like the slight roughness to my dorodango, but maybe it's my patience level...and I'm good with "good enough"!

My son polished his dorodango for quite a bit longer and it is decidedly shinier than mine.

So polish it as long as you like, until you are pleased with the shine.

Isn't this Japanese art form just amazing!?

I love that all these shiny orbs were made from the dry earth in our yard!

These are practically FREE to make, and I love crafts that come in under budget and super impressive!

These look like polished rocks!

Okay, but what happens if they get wet?

Likely, they will melt back into a pile of dirt.

Okay, but what if I drop it on the ground?

It will break and turn into a pile of dirt.

CAN YOU FIRE YOUR DORODANGO IN A KILN OR FIRE PIT?

YES!

My husband took about 4 of these and let them dry for a few days, then fired them in our 55 gallon fire pit, stacked on a couple bricks. 

We expected them to break in half or crack or blow up...but none of them did.

He didn't temperature check the fire, but it was a decent wood fire.

They turned out amazing, slightly change of color and much lighter.

Just like fired pottery.

They are shiny still and can withstand water.

So what do you think about making hikaru dorodango?

Is this something you would try using the dry earth in your yard?

I love them.

I think they would make a great gift, because they have such an amazing story!

That's it!

Making Dorodango, Japanese shiny mud ball art form, with the dirt in your own backyard is amazingly satisfying.

It's easy to do, we had no fails with our attempt and couldn't get enough of these shiny ornaments.

What do you think about taking natural clay and making it super shiny?

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