Hikaru dorodango, handmade ‘shining mud dumplings’

Around 2001, Professor Fumio Kayo of the Kyoto University of Education made news by bringing the Japanese art of hikaru dorodango (どろ だんご or ‘shining mud dumpling’) into preschool classrooms as a play activity, though the origin before that is unknown. In the video above, p2 Photography documents Bruce Gardener’s exploration of dorodango in their series Buck The Cubicle.

Below, a classroom of kids makes their own shiny (and colorful) mud spheres, which are also sold as Japanese kits:

MAKE also has the step by step of how to make your own shining mud dumpling from your free local mud.

h/t Kottke.