r/Dorodango • u/Emergency_Lift • Jul 30 '25

Advanced question Shine tips?

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Was wondering if I could get some tips on shining this up. I spent over an hour in the polishing stage rolling it on an egg cup. Polished with a microfiber towel for a long time as well, ended up losing some paint. This is my 1st real try with using some Clay from the store and some super sifted dirt from some memorable places. Trying to make this for my wife for our anniversary

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3

u/sapphireminds Experienced Jul 30 '25

You need almost pure clay for the outer shell for it to get a high shine, so that might be your issue. If you add anything to it, it needs to be incredibly fine like mica powder or graphite powder. It needs to be truly powdered. I have used graphite, mica and titanium dioxide so far. I also have some masonry pigments that I'm going to try eventually.

But if there's not enough clay, you won't get the shiny shell

2

u/Emergency_Lift Jul 30 '25

The outer shell is a mix of kaolin clay and mica powder. I used the same ratios as noriko. Any idea why the clay wouldn't shine?

1

u/sapphireminds Experienced Jul 30 '25

Hmmm. Maybe not perfectly round or not enough pressure (or too much at the wrong time) I think really from the graphite video that many of my problems with shells come from trying to get the moisture right.

She uses red clay I think, and I've found different clay types need different water amounts. I am using a ball clay powder right now and it requires significantly more water than hers, but when I use red clay, her ratios work fine.

My experiences with kaolin weren't great lol I had trouble getting a great shine with it, again though I think it's all about the moisture and rates of drying

1

u/Emergency_Lift Jul 30 '25

Thank you for the reply! Would you say too wet or too dry wouls be the problem. I would say i used slightly more water than she suggested. I believe she recommended 20 and with the 3 balls I made for me to work on i used between 20 and 35. I grabbed kaolin because I heard someone else recommend it so hoping i can get it to work lol

1

u/sapphireminds Experienced Jul 30 '25

Not sure, sorry :( I'm still figuring it out myself! You can always rewet it and start polishing again.

1

u/Emergency_Lift Jul 30 '25

I'm going to try that. I watched a different lady last night take time really packing on that clay layer with her hands before shining it. I kinda rolled mine on, soft then started shining. So maybe take more time with that?

2

u/sapphireminds Experienced Jul 30 '25

So my working theory right now is you have to balance the shrinkage of the clay with drying with the spreading of the clay molecules with pressure. Like you need the clay to be able to move still to spread out (so it needs to be a little wet) but too wet, you'll get cracking/shaving/wrinkles because it has not shrunk enough yet to be able to be spread out more.

I don't know if that makes sense to anyone but me though lol

2

u/Emergency_Lift Jul 30 '25

I think that makes sense. I know at one point I got frustrated and just started pushing super hard and going to it was completely dry for a while to see is that would help lol

1

u/2janae Jul 30 '25

I saw a japanese lady use the tiniest bit of olive oil

2

u/Emergency_Lift Jul 30 '25

I think you and I watched the same lady haha

1

u/Childishcapacitors Jul 30 '25

Do you have something like a ceramic coffee cup? Something with a thick edge that’s round and smooth? Because that’s what I needed. Mine looked like yours until I got a coffee cup and was able to burnish it.

1

u/Emergency_Lift Jul 30 '25

I have been using a ceramic egg cup and using the bottom which is smooth :/ 

1

u/Childishcapacitors Jul 30 '25

Dang. How fine is your clay? I had to put mine through a coffee grinder to get it powdered. When mine was stuck at that stage too I powdered my clay as fine as I could get it, sprinkled it on, used a mason jar to smooth it out, let it dry a bit and while it was mostly dry I used the round smooth rim of my coffee cup to get it shiny.

1

u/Emergency_Lift Jul 30 '25

It's super fine. I bought it from the store after I couldn't get my dirt around here to shine up