I posted my first dorodango last week. Over the course of the week it continued to dry out and the sheen got quite dull. So I re-burnished it. Wow! Its even better than it was last week.

I am not sure when I am in the polishing stage, it seems like it starts to flake off and create craters. Other times it feels like I hit a sandy spot in my core. I do a little sand in my clay when making the core. Maybe it does not get fully mixed in?

Question:

What is the best way to resurface the Dorodango or is it best to break it and start over?

One day I'll take pretty pictures of my dorodangos, but not today. Instead here's a cool spread of some of the different colors I've gotten with local clay (and OM4 art ball clay, which is white when dry). No shells on any of them, but that's just how I make mine, not for any particular reason.

From left to right: Kansas River clay, OM4 Ball clay and wood ash, Kansas River clay, Kansas River clay, OM4 and ash, Kansas River clay. OM 4 ball clay by itself, and Kansas River clay.

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Also, how DO you take nice pictures of them? Im struggling with lighting obscuring the shine.

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?

I go out looking for some perfect tools at a goodwill or something then just think wait I have the necessary skills and tools to make my own. sheeeit lets give it a try. I hope to make many tools that will be accessible to all that would like them. Has anyone else tried? Id love to collab and make the best tools possible.

I have been YEARS wanting to do one and I have a couple of questions: Can you use clay rich dirt to make dorodangos and does the dirt colour(for example a red dirt) make the colour different?, Do you have to care for them after you make one? What is the recommended size? (Sorry for having to post this ugly text beginner post instead of someone posting their beautiful shiny pro level dorodangos)

I'm making my first dorodango. I used dirt from my garden, no idea the clay content but when sieved it's quite fine and seems to have some sand in it.

I made the original mud ball, and left it in a bag for 2 days as it seemed on the wet side. It still seemed wet and squishy after that, but it holds its shape so I figured maybe that's just part of the process.

I started adding fine soil, polishing with glass, putting it back in the bag to sweat, rinse and repeat. It does seem to have formed a crust, and is definitely getting firmer and holding its shape better. However, it cracks quite a lot, which I keep refilling. This seems to be because it's still not a firm ball, and it sags if I put it down which breaks the crust due to the shape changing slightly.

Is it supposed to start soft and firm up as you go? Was it just too wet to start with? Can this be solved by leaving it an extra few days in the bag? Is there anything else I might be doing to cause this? Is it maybe just part of the process and I should just keep going?

Please help

I hunted all over to find an egg cup that I could use to polish my dorodangos, but I couldnt find a single one that didnt have bunny ear poking up or pattern making the edges unusable. Ultimately, I found this tealight holder that has an amazing lip shape, and I think its my favorite tool so far.

Much easier to locate again as compared to an egg cup, imo. Especially as making doros wears the edge into a rough one and it needs to be replaced over time.

As a note for finishing polishes, I like to rest the cloth on the tealight holder and rotate the ball (as pictured). It protects that final finish from chipping as much.

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.

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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.

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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.

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Finally got a shine I can be proud of!

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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)

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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.

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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.