The Japanese Are Polishing Foil Balls Because Only The Japanese Can Polish Foil Balls

Here at Awkward, we love it when people take something mundane and turn it into something creative and unexpected. Because it helps us keep the lights on–but also, because we get a kick out of it! And the latest surprising creation is aluminum foil balls polished to perfection.

Bored Panda shared this emerging Japanese trend, and it’s impressive not only for the final result, but also for the enormous amount of work that goes into it. We’ve all seen a ball of foil, but here’s a shot of what it looks like anyway, just to give you a sense of how difficult these projects really are:

Just looks like trash, right? It doesn’t seem remotely possible that something so crumpled up could ever be smoothed to perfection, but somehow, people pull it off.  Twitter user @puchuco is the first person to try this DIY project, and they shared their process with Grape Japan. First, you need a length of foil about 16 meters (52 feet long.) Scrunch it into a ball as tight as possible, (and don’t feel guilty about wasting a perfectly good roll of foil.)

Then, grab a hammer and start pounding. Eventually, the ball will start to smooth out:

Still doesn’t look very smooth, does it? That means it’s time for…more hammering!

Keep pounding until you reach the next step, which is called, “Strongly Considering Abandoning This Project.” Your foil ball will look like this:

If you don’t feel like doing all the hammering yourself, you can get a small child to do it:

Keep at it, and in a few short years, your foil ball will be transformed into a round, shiny orb.

@puchuco claims it only takes an hour to smooth out a foil ball, but I’m not buying it.

Here’s a video showing how to make a polished foil ball. To their credit, everyone seems aware of how painstaking this project is, and they have some fun with it.

People on social media were divided on how to feel about this. Some definitely got what this project is all about.

While others were simply glad it doesn’t involve poisoning yourself.

As for us, we’re hoping this inspires similar trends. Maybe next year we will probably be telling you about people who restore used toiled paper to pristine mint condition.

Your move, Japan.

 

h/t: Bored Panda

Follow @itsjimrowley