15 or 20 year ago Japanese schoolkids started making shiny balls out of mud (dorodango). Now people have figured out how to make shiny balls out of aluminum foil. They look very cool! To make one, you crumble up an entire roll of aluminum foil, then compact it with a hammer. After that, you have to polish it with increasingly finer sandpaper and polishes. It's a lengthy process, but that's the point.
