Instruction
If you found your way to this website, you are probably holding a Dorodango in your hand. Congrats!
A Dorodango is a Japanese mudball. It is the result of a wonderful, meditative process where you get to know the material at its best.
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Create a new – your – Dorodango from this one.
In this collaborative process with the material, you‘ll learn to react and respond to it. Don‘t worry the instruction (down here) and the loam will show you how.
Most important for you, is, to take your time. Wait some hours between every step, because the loam needs its time to change its appearance and get to know its new surrounding. Follow the instruction and try to listen to the material.
Have fun!
Step 1
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Destruction of the Dorodango
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Put it in a vessel and fill it with some water (half full). Then, let it stay. The loam will soak the water. After some hours, the loam will be soft again. Pour the surplus water away. Let the moist loam stay overnight.
Step 2
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Kneading
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Knead the loam. It takes a while.
After some time, the loam will warm up and soften.
It shouldn‘t be too sticky, likewise, not too dry that it cracks.
Step 3
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Forming the ball
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Roll the loam and form a sphere.
Then let it stay overnight, in a plastic bag. Lay it on a soft surface such as a folded towel or a pillow. Even a little shorter would be okay, but best is you give it its time; enough time for the moisture to condense on the surface of the sphere in the bag.
Step 4
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Shaping the sphere
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Remove the ball from the bag and repeat drying out the surface of the ball again. For this, take a glass and hone the sphere. You can either turn the glass or the ball. Then, put the ball, again, overnight in a plastic bag for another “sweat”. Repeat this step three or four times.
Step 5
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Finishing
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Take some fine dirt and scatter it over the mud ball. The sphere’s surface should now feel dry and dusty. Flatten the surface with the vessel again as in step 5. Then, let it stay a couple of hours under a reversed bowl. Repeat this five to six times. Continue this process until you’ve removed all moisture from the sphere’s surface. You can tell you’ve achieved this once dust no longer sticks to the sphere’s surface.
Finally, let it air-dry.
If you like, you can polish your sphere with a textile. Do this very carefully and gently!.
Great! You are done!
You have created your own Dorodango.
Now, you can put it onto its base and enjoy its existence.
When you feel it’s time to give it to someone else, any person you’d like to share this experience with, do it.
You’ll be probably surprised that you start caring about it and that it isn’t so easy to hand it over, right? This is exactly what this project is about.
Loam is, as any other material, a valuable resource that needs to be treated with respect. It is capable of so much if you just let it do its job and don’t force other qualities on it.
This is how we should start dealing with resources to achieve a balanced interplay again.
The Cycle of Vitaliy - Dorodangos on their mission to promote the vitality of matter. Transform with the matter and experience all its stages of becoming.
You can download the instructions here:
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