[Music]
Dorodango is basically just a beautiful mud ball.
It can have an incredible shine
or it can have a textured surface.
I have to make one of these.
Well, let's go get some mud.
[Discover: Dorodango with Barbara Hannah Gufferman]
[Music]
Oh, it's so beautiful here!
So, where are we and what are we about to do?
Well, we are just north of Albuquerque,
outside of the little town of Placitas.
And we are getting ready
to dig up some earth for dorodango.
This actually looks pretty good right here.
And why does this look so good here?
Well, the earth here is generally
a good combination of sand and clay.
Yeah? >> And it’s very workable.
Yeah? >> So dig away!
Me?
Absolutely!
Where is your shovel?
I only brought one.
It's just you today. Get your hands dirty.
Oh, gosh!
Yeah, it’s going to be good and heavy.
All right, not bad.
Not bad.
[Music]
I'm really looking forward to seeing
your studio and get to put this bucket down.
Wow! Oh, my gosh! These are beautiful!
Thank you!
This is all from New Mexico.
This is from the back side of the Sandias,
beautiful yellow deposit.
This is from La Bajada Hill,
between Santa Fe and Albuquerque.
Some of these purples are from Placitas,
where we were today, actually.
So, what is dorodango?
The full name is hikaru dorodango,
and the translation is “shiny dumpling.”
And the way I heard about it was from an article,
“The Japanese Pursuit of Perfection,”
and this was one of the examples it gave,
and I was just absolutely blown away
that you could make something so beautiful from dirt.
And I knew I wanted to give it a try,
and I have been doing it ever since.
OK, well, I’m ready.
OK, let's do it.
The first step is to add
some water to your clean basin here.
So, just a little bit of water?
Yeah. >> Not that much?
You don't want to have too much water, obviously.
Oh!
A little dust...
A little dusty! >> Yeah.
You want to shoot for a cake batter
consistency that's not too dry, not too wet.
Oh, it doesn't smell like cake batter,
but it's that wonderful smell of wet earth
after a wonderful rainstorm
in the summer. >> Yes, that's real nice.
You know that great smell?
It's beautiful!
So it's just a simple mud ball.
Dig your hands right in and then we’ll add
the coarser material to it.
And then, as we progress along,
we'll start adding the fine material to it.
So, finer, finer, finer...
And you just try to make a perfect ball.
Right? >> And you want to compress it
to get rid of the voids inside
the ball. >> Oh, I see.
So that it doesn't dry irregularly.
So you squeeze out the water,
keep making it as round as you can.
Right at this stage,
you add your first layer of dirt,
and this can get a little dusty, so... >> And this is a good size, right?
It's the perfect size. >> I mean, just your standard size.
Whatever size is good for your hand.
But you just want to gently sprinkle
some of this dirt over.
I am going to... >> OK…
just pour some of this into our basin.
This is the finer material
that was screened with the window screen.
So we just start pouring it on like
we did before?>> We start pouring it on and just,
kind of, slowly rub it in, and the curve of your thumb
here is a good surface to, kind of,
drag along the surface.
So we’ve created
what I call the preliminary capsule.
And now we are going to go finer.
And the way we do that is just
by rubbing our hands back and forth
in the dirt like that, pat it into the dorodango.
So, this to me is the most meditative stage.
There is something about the rhythm of,
you know, reaching in and rubbing your hand
in the dirt and then patting it
back on the dorodango, and this is,
I think, the most enjoyable part.
And what do you think it does for you?
I work at a software company,
and it’s a pretty stressful job sometimes.
So this is a really good way
for me to unwind at the end of the day.
You know, I’m a knitter
and I find it very meditative.
It’s that mindfulness that I find very calming
and soothing and decompressing.
We have been doing this step for a while.
What is the next step?
Once I get it to a certain stage,
I will actually take an additional step
and put it in a glass bowl like this
and rotate it around,
and this will both compress the surface and...
smooth it out...
smooth it out.
Oftentimes when you work with clay,
you then put it into a special oven.
Do you do that with this, too?
Never. This is unfired earth.
And you will know when it is properly dried — how?
Over time, you will notice that it is no longer cool
to the touch when you pull it out,
and then you know that moisture has pretty much left.
I can't believe I made one of these.
One of life's great pleasures
is to create a piece of art that brings you joy
and also puts you into a meditative state,
and that’s exactly what happened today.