Look at my finished dorodango this morning! Oh my gosh, we are seriously addicted to these things. Talk during polishing of our imperfect balls was of "next time" and "by the time I've made thirty" and "when I get better at this."We've hatched plans to bring 50 litres of dirt inside for the winter to continue production. Maybe we won't be doing much knitting this year.
its a thing of beauty!
ReplyDeleteI am feeling inspired...
Wow...it's so shiny! I never expected a mudball to look so pretty!
ReplyDeleteTht's so cool! I've never heard of them before but definitely want to try to make one. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteyou inspired me to try and make my own dorodango but it turns out the viral icky-ness i have had is still around more than i realized. so i will be making one this weekend. this is very cool. i think i may have read about them years ago and then forgotten them.
ReplyDelete-bug
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI had a question I hoped you might be able to answer. I've tried a couple of times to do this now, and always end up with cracking in the "play with the mud" phase. How wet /hard/formed is your ball before you start adding the sand in little mountains and the brushing it off? Am I spending too long in the preliminary stage?
Any advice would be great...I'm really excited about this, but it doesn't seem to be working.
Thanks,
Anno
Hey Anno, the biggest thing that's helped prevent cracking for us is to not squeeze. I think that as Canadians we're at a distinct disadvantage with this craft, because of years of making snowballs. :-)
ReplyDeleteOur balls still feel gelatinous inside when we start adding the dry dirt on the outside. However, I find if I add too much dry dirt too quickly things are prone to crack. The first couple of layers of dry dirt are best if they're fairly thin. You can move faster after the first couple of dustings have been incorporated.
You might also consider whether your soil composition is appropriate. You want the sort of dirt that turns into sticky mud when wet ... it should have a significant clay component.
Good luck! Keep experimenting!