>> Carla Sinclair is editor-in-chief of CRAFT magazine.
carla@craftzine.com
dorodango, I thought the smooth, glossy
spheres were made of some type of metal
or stone. The spheres looked heavy, like fist-sized
cannon balls that varied in color — from black to
mustard-yellow, tomato-red, and marble-white — and
were so shiny I was sure you could see your reflection
if you looked closely. They were gracefully stacked on
top of each other, like an arrangement of modern art:
beautiful, abstract, and mysterious. Then I read the
accompanying article and learned that these elegant
sculptures weren’t made from an exotic fine material
at all; in fact, they were nothing more than balls of dirt.
An ancient pastime whose roots are unknown,
making hikaru dorodango (“shiny mudballs”) was
a Zen-like activity that had almost been forgotten.
Then, about five years ago, a Kyoto research pro-
fessor reintroduced dorodango to a Japanese
elementary school, sparking a fad that quickly
swept across the country. Many schoolchildren
in Japan are now obsessed with carefully shaping
mud into balls, and then spending hours, even days,
polishing them with their hands until the surface
becomes as shiny as a billiard ball. The varying col-
ors depend on the type of soil used. (There’s a nice
gallery of mud spheres at dorodango.com.)
We wanted to feature dorodango in CRAF T. But
only half-believing these mudballs could look as
amazing as they did in the photos we found, we
asked O’Reilly Media’s Jason Arnold if he would try
making dorodango with his 9-year-old daughter.
After a few botched attempts, they produced gor-
geous dorodango that looked like glazed pottery,
fresh from the kiln. Arnold shares the ancient recipe with us in our Play column (page 140).
Dorodango, which straddles both ancient and
trendy crafting in Japan, is emblematic of a country
where traditions and trends seem to coexist seam-
lessly. Kimonos, origami, and traditional gift-wrapping
are thriving with a pulse as strong as that of Blythe
dolls, retro monsters, Harajuku fashion, and the pop
world of “Super Cute.” And it’s both the ancient as
well as the modern crafts of Japan that have seeped
into Western culture. Search “Japan” on etsy.com
and you’ll find more than 2,300 handmade items,
ranging from necklaces made of vintage Japanese glass to a Speed Racer shrug, a tote bag of Japa-
nese fabrics, a “Harajuku-style cellphone charm”
that lights up, and a modern pendant made from
17th-century-inspired yuzen paper.
It’s in this spirit of interlacing the old and the new that we bring you our Japan-themed issue. Project Runway’s Diana Eng gives us “street style” with her punk Harajuku T-shirt project (page 82), and then
goes traditional with a decorative mizuhiki knot (page 21). Syuzi Pakhchyan of SparkLab shows us
how to make kimono-wearing finger puppets that light up with emotion, LED style (page 60). Aranzi Aronzo of The Cute Book shows us how to stitch irresistible kitties (page 53).
Along with our Japan-influenced crafts, you’ll get
the usual bundle of inspiring how-tos and articles,
such as using metal clay, crocheting pull-tabs,
making one-week wine, reverse engineering a pair
of pants, and dissecting a sewing machine. So welcome, or irashaimasu ×
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