I know, what use could this possibly have, but I like it anyway.

I made a shiny ball of mud.

I really don't know why the japanese art of hikaru dorodango is so fascinating to me. Maybe because it is meditative. Maybe because it is fascinating watching something made simply of earth become a shiny sphere. Maybe because it is an elevated reason to PLAY WITH MUD.

I don't know.

That aside, this is a cheap, and interesting way of creating a lasting memory of a very specific place - the color and shine of the dorodango are directly related to the dirt you are using. This ball here is forever a piece of my backyard in Alpharetta. Now I want to collect dirt whenever I travel. Won't that be fun for airport security?

There are a couple of websites that explain the method for making these. I used this one. Basically, you start with barely damp earth (think good sandcastle dampness) and you try and make the most round of round spheres you possibly can. OCD is an asset here. Then, you let it dry a bit - some methods suggest using a ziploc for this, I didn't - and from that point you just add layers of fine, dry dirt, rubbing as you do, until you develop the gloss you want. It took a few hours to make total, and a good portion of that was sitting in front of a movie while my hands were adding the last fine dirt layers.

The dorodango lightened in both weight and color as it dried and now it is sitting on the mantle above my fireplace. There is a scale of shininess that rates dorodango from 1-5, 5 being super ultra glossy awesome explosion. I'm figuring this around the two to three range, but I'm hoping for a four for the next one. On Moh's hardness scale, I'm figuring it's around a 2, because I like to classify these things.

I did try a second one, but rubbed too hard and cracked it, so I have to attempt again. I've got some super red dirt from near one of the restaurants I used to work at. Shiny red mud ball...