Marvelously Messy

Dorodango are polished spheres, formed out of mud and the skill of your hands. They are a traditional past time of children in Japan. They are an exercise in patience and a great tool for meditation. The translation of the phrase Dorodango is doro: mud and dango: a type of round rice flour dumpling. Here's what you need to make your own (also HERE is a link to the site where I learned to do it.....this person has done MANY....this is the only one I have done....you may want to refer to this link *wink*) :

DIRT!!!!

You want some dirt with a good amount of clay (that's what holds the whole project together). Add some water to make a mud ball and shape it into a sphere. Once it hold the shape, add some dry dirt to it and use the curve of your thumb to begin shaping it into a ball. Like THIS:

Add dirt, but you want to avoid getting to the paint where cracks start to form. If that does happen just add a little water and it should reform. Once you've reached that stopping point, put the ball in a ziplock bag and set it down on something soft (so it will retain a round shape) in the shade. The moisture will come out of it and line the bag. Take it out after a while (maybe an hour) and repeat the last step. Set it in the shade again and let the moisture wick out of it again. I kept mine it the bag overnight after that. The next day I took some extra fine sand and added it to the ball. Then I put in in a ziplock and put it in the fridge (this pulls the water out much faster) for 20 minutes. I repeated that step as many times as I could until when you bring it out of the bag that wasn't any moisture left in the bag. I sifted on the finest dirt I could get and began the process of polishing. Using a piece of satin (you want the softest cloth you can find), I polished it until it got to the highest shine I could make. You want to be careful because it is possible to over-polish it and work right down to the layer of sand beneath. Some dorodango can get to a really high shine and some will only make it a little of the way. The trick is to get the finest dirt possible for the last layer that is placed upon it.

When we went on vacation in April we were on the beach and I first tried this craft as I was plunked down on the sand. It is possible to get some really fun hard sand spheres....but they will not get shiny....it's the clay that really makes it all work.

It was still a lot of fun, though!! If you have the inclination the next time you are on the beach, you should make some of these and just leave them around. You will no doubt bewilder the next people to pass that spot on the sand. :-)

All this dirt came right from my garden. Pretty cool, huh?? I plan to find a variety of different colored dirt and make some other dorodango....all the colors of the rainbow. Here are some of the many possibilities....look how shiny this artist makes them. I've got a lot of work to do. :-)

Here are some of the parties I linked up to, check them out and be inspired!!

Thifty Thursday
Frugalicious Friday
Frugal Friday
Saturday Nite Special
Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays
Works For Me Wednesday
Penny Pinching Party
Thrifty Thursday
Frugalicious Friday
Frugal Friday
Friday Favorites

Join us Saturdays at tatertotsandjello.com for the weekend wrap up party!

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~Update~

You guys are right, this is NOT a Jelly Cabinet. :-) Survey says that this is a drying cabinet, hence the dowels. You can see that I never majored in vintage furniture identification (is this even vintage??.....I haven't the foggiest!!). I'm so glad I have some people to set me straight!! Thanks for the tips!!

All I can say is WOOOO HOOOO!!!! I am so thrilled with the funkiness of this Jelly Cabinet redo. I found this piece last night at, you guessed it, Goodwill. For $9.99. What a deal!! Here's what it looked like when I found it:

Am I right in assuming this was a Jelly Cabinet? Let me know what you think. All these dowels threw me for a loop, but the general shape seems to suggest Jelly Cabinet.

Here's the deal. I primed it:

Then I customed mixed a light greenish blue color for the undercoat. Once that was painted on and fully dry I slathered it with sloppy glue (thanks to some inspiration from Ann at Make the Best of Things ) waited for the glue to set a little bit and then painted over it with a darker greeish/blue. This makes for a great crackle!!

I used plain acrylic craft paint for this project. I have tried to do the crackle effect with interior paint and it is just too thick for it to work. I also painted a grape vine wreath with the undercoat color to make a little matching decor.