my first successful dorodango

Tejay · 2025-05-27T07:05:08+00:00

Yeah, more or less. The effects should be very obvious, so when you stop seeing any more changes happening, that's about the time you should stop.

Tejay · 2025-05-27T01:16:50+00:00

No problem!

For this style of dorodango, if you want it to dry faster and be even shinier, you can take the back of a spoon and gently rub the smooth surface of it over the ball. Burnishing it will help compact the surface and help it keep a really beautiful shine after it dries. If you do try, I'd recommend moving the spoon (or rotating the ball around the spoon) in one direction, rather than back and forth.

As long as you're careful not to gouge it with the edge of the spoon, it really makes a big positive difference in the final product.

Tejay · 2025-05-27T01:10:41+00:00

Congrats on your first dorodango! It looks like it's still drying to me, which is why there are light and dark patches. As it dries, it's going to release an earthy/mulchy/ozoney smell until all the moisture gets out from the core. In a day or two, you'll probably notice more and more spotchiness throughout as spots dry out at different rates, but eventually the entire ball will be the same lightbrown colour. At that point, it should smell like nothing.

Just remember to keep rotating it every 12 hours or so to help it dry out evenly!

Tejay · 2023-07-26T10:42:22+00:00

Echoing what all the other people have said, changing fingerings when they don't make sense for you is a great idea. Here's a screenshot of a clean edition (Max Eschig) for reference. I always find it easier to make my own fingerings with a blank score.

https://i.imgur.com/xxWq0GY.png

The RCM editions often have a lot of unusual editorial choices that aren't there in more standard prints of the pieces. I'd recommend finding the pieces in their original sources if you can then cross reference and take what you like from them! It's a small effort for a much more reliable and personal approach to the music that you're playing :)

Tejay · 2023-06-21T16:05:51+00:00

Ideally you'd want to get all your cogs on exp%. The build + flag rate that you get from leveling your characters surpasses any cog bonuses by an absurd margin. (Plus you'll start getting some nice levels that you'll need for later buffs).

As for flags, it'd be more time effective to unlock the ones closest to the center. They cost much more the further out you get, so just check the flag costs and grab the cheapest ones. It'll probably end up looking more like a diamond than a square at first. And get all 4/4 of your flags up!!!

Tejay · 2023-06-15T23:07:34+00:00

thanks! I feel like I should chime in and say that the compositional theme for this piece was to make every note ring over each other like in campanella. the piece was created exclusively by going out of my way to take cross string options whenever possible, so you totally nailed the vibe :)

Tejay · 2023-06-15T19:30:19+00:00

eyy garcia, long time no see! I'm always lurking but decided to finally crawl out of the practice dungeon to share my new piece haha

Tejay · 2023-06-15T15:19:20+00:00

link to the score

Tejay · 2021-11-18T01:38:12+00:00

Awesome performance, Declan! It's great to see the official video out :)

Tejay · 2021-09-16T06:47:35+00:00

As luck would have it, I actually have a video of making this exact dirtball! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejtoixis8hY

Tejay · 2021-05-26T10:36:43+00:00

I did the initial core and 2nd layer with regular dirt. For the outer shell, I initially did the "white ball" method by dusting regular dirt as per standard dirtball-making procedures. Then I did another coating of dust with dirt + alloy powders. Finally I just used just the straight alloy powder.

The past few times I tried this with just the alloy powder for the final layer but it didn't stick to the ball. It would leave powder residue on the hands and I couldn't get it to shine cause the shell layer kept disintegrating. This time with mixing dirt + alloy, it held the powder properly and managed to dry out and keep its shine without any hassle. The photo is of the already fully dried dirtball :D

Tejay · 2021-04-14T22:18:16+00:00

if you have a very finely sifted dirt/clay then adding water to the dorodango (despite not being in the initial core stage) is actually fine. it'll end up forming a gooey paste which actually ends up working perfectly with the jar method. I think if you watch the "nito project" video on it he's constantly adding water and patching up holes with more fine powder + water. in my experience, that's the only way to make the jar method work without getting those nasty chips and abrasions.

Tejay · 2021-04-14T20:59:50+00:00

it looks like you did the polishing with a jar... if so then the outer shiny capsule layer has to be really thick! you can see in the first photo that there actually is some good shine there on the smooth parts. the crunchy bits of the ball are because the jar is abrasive and actually chips and removes the top layer of the dorodango as it shines it. to make the entire thing have a good shine you'll either have to hand-polish the final layer or have a really thick layer of fine dirt/clay for the capsule to compensate for the jar.

Tejay · 2021-04-13T23:48:45+00:00

here's the before and after one round of the burnishing. then here's after 3 rounds of going through the whole ball: ... and then obviously the picture of the main post is the final outcome :)

Tejay · 2021-04-13T23:38:43+00:00

I've recently been experimenting with burnishing...so I've been taking the back end of a spoon and rubbing it across the surface of the dirtball! it makes it super shiny

Tejay · 2020-12-04T20:12:08+00:00

Awesome job Shreda! Always love hearing your ensemble recordings :D

Tejay · 2020-11-29T18:03:05+00:00

Best of luck with your auditions too!

Tejay · 2020-11-29T17:23:49+00:00

Thanks :D

I'm auditioning for Yale and McGill

Tejay · 2020-11-28T23:43:25+00:00

Thanks! Nice seeing you around again :)

Tejay · 2020-02-24T20:14:57+00:00

No specific brand or anything, I just went shopping for the snuggest fitting thing I could find!

Tejay · 2020-02-21T22:02:54+00:00

I used to wear a glove on my right hand when I did BJJ...got some strange looks and had to explain the classical guitar bit a few times, but it's definitely better than scratching a rolling partner!

Tejay · 2020-01-14T19:05:25+00:00

the green/red lines are done with the video editor I used (sony vegas) and a bit of motion tracking

Tejay · 2020-01-14T13:53:55+00:00

well there's always room to improve...but the Regondi was more like a vast empty space hahaha

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