A common childhood pastime in Japan is making hikaru dorodango, or 'shiny mud balls' by taking a ball of mud and squeezing, packing and smoothing it, gradually drying it out, and slowly adding dry dirt to it, and finally rubbing it to a glossy shine.
The results are nothing short of amazing.
Looking at the process, it seems like what they're ending up with is a packed, smooth ball finished with an outer layer of finely burnished clay particles, probably not far from terra sig.
Image from: http://www.kyokyo-u.ac.jp/youkyou/4/english4.htm , which also has instructions for making one of these little gems.
There is additional information and instructions here:
and at Wikipedia here:
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3 comments:
That's really amazing and bizarre. Are these all fired?
Deborah,
These are -not- fired.... just dried mud.
how fun!
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