Shiny mud balls

Lisa Chell – stickstacks
Lisa is a creative outdoor educator, Forest School pactitioner, artist and mud lover, who is never happier than when she is playing, wallowing or creating with mud. Luckily most of the children she works with love mud too!
Lisa regularly leads Forest School sessions for under 5s and primary school age children, and is passionate about providing creative opportunities for children and young people within a natural environment.
To find out more check out Lisa’s Facebook page

The thing is, the process of making Hikaru Dorodango is strangely compulsive. It is like a meditation; it is repetitive, slow and conscious. There comes a point when you start to feel a real connection to the object you are creating, this thing that is made of mud becomes really precious, and as it slowly begins to shine… that is when the real magic happens!

I shared this process with a group of Forest School leaders recently, and the most common questions were: ‘Do you need special mud?’ and ‘why?’. The answers are ‘no, any soil will work’ and ‘why not?’

Dorodango are not for anything – they just are – and what they are, is beautiful, amazing and magical. They are made simply from earth, water and time. I am, however, more and more convinced that the time spent making them is not just ordinary time. It is time when you are totally absorbed in a process, it is time devoted to yourself, it is play, it is therapy, and it is time and space for social engagement.

Dorodango can be made by anyone, anywhere. They do not require any special equipment or materials. It is a great activity to do on your own, or in a group, over a day, a weekend or several weeks! It is something you can work on for a little while, then put down, go away and return to it whenever you want. It is surprisingly addictive!

I have sat with people I have only just met, and whiled away happy hours rubbing dust onto a ball of mud, chatting and putting the world to rights. Then suddenly someone notices a change to the texture of their ball – they see that it is beginning to take on a new form, the surface is becoming so smooth that a lustre shows through the dust. Excitement ripples through the group – everyone wants to look, compare, question the technique, then move away more determined to achieve the same result!

The origins of Hikaru Dorodango support the idea that the process of making them is really important. Professor Fumio Kayo of the Kyoto University of Education discovered dorodango at a pre-school in Kyoto, in 1999, where he observed the children making simple mud balls.

He made many attempts to make shiny dorodango and eventually devised an easy-to-follow method. He shared this method with the children, resulting in a craze that rapidly spread across Japan. Kayo observed that the children demonstrated behaviour that was ‘surprising from the perspective of developmental psychology’.

“Once Kayo teaches children how to make these mud balls, they become absorbed in forming a sphere, and they put all their energy into polishing the ball until it sparkles. The dorodango soon becomes the child’s greatest treasure.”

Kayo sees in this phenomenon the essence of children’s play, and he has written academic papers on the subject. The mud balls could also offer fresh insights into how play aids children’s growth.

Shiny Mud Balls: Kyoto Professor Taps into the Essence of Play, October 5, 2001