A few years ago I decided to dwell in the idea of making one- because I saw it somewhere- while I know it was on Mythbusters for the episode which they did the technique to polish a turd, I’m pretty sure I heard of the technique before then. Anyway a little awhile after the episode aired (November 2008 it seems) I decided to try it out- because who wouldn’t want a shiny mud ball in on their mantal piece.
Well my attempt was a complete disaster. I was with a friend at the time who I tried to convince to do it as well- but wouldn’t because he didn’t want to touch the mud.
Anyway mine was a complete disaster- and while I did get it to the stage the above picture is- I never was able to polish it- instead it crumbled in my hands after awhile- so I gave up and went on to do something else.
If you too want to achieve the same failure! Nows the time to learn about the technique, how it is achieved, and what you can do to it if it does indeed crack and brake for you.
All you need really is mud. Lots and lots of Mud. My suggestion is to dig up your parents garden to make a “Mud Bath” to have ample amounts of mud for this project.
The first thing you want to do is make a sphere which you will want most of the water squeezed out from it. Once you have the sphere, your goal is to continue to “coat” it with dirt.
With the dirt you are adding to the sphere you want to rub it into the ball. If its still not a perfect sphere you will also be using to to “shape” the ball.
Continue to rub the sphere then put it into a plastic bag for the water to disappear, then after a few hours remove it and put some dirt on it again while rubbing it. After awhile it should be polished if not you might want to try some different techniques.
There are a few variations to this main technique- which is based off the one from eHow. Another one which was more along the lines what I used a few years back involved a more “quicker” method which you would continue to rub it like traditionally, but putting it into the freezer in a box or leaving it out in the sun will speed the time required to wait for it dramatically and then you could move onto working on its coat again.
Also if it cracks- there are solutions to fix it. People can slap some mud into the cracks and work it around the ball- once that is done the dirt method and putting it around and around like before will work and just continue from there.