What is
Top. Pear-shaped piece of wood with an iron tip. A rope is wound, thrown with force to the ground and rotated on the tip (DCVB). In Mallorca, baldufa also names a rope drilling tool and a conical shaft of presses and lathes: the same shape, another job.
How is
- Toy: pear-turned wooden body; iron tip below; Above is a cap or neck where the rope (cordellina) begins. Names of the parties: DCVB sheet (to verify specific Mallorcan names).
- Baldufa de foradar (Barc., Mall.): piece of spheroidal or pear-shaped wood crossed by a vertical axis; above, a rope tied to a horizontal crossbar; below, the drill bit. It is still used among adobacossis for drilling ceramics (DCVB).
- Baldufa de pressa: conical piece that rotates within a dau (dice) on the axis of the press: "per adobar el dau y la baldufa de la premsa", 1817 (DCVB).
How is fa
Turned in hard wood and nailed iron tip. Craft of the turner , which lists it among its pieces. Before, also homemade.
Com s'usa
- Gesture: the rope is rolled from the tip upwards, the end is held between the fingers, thrown up and down and the rope is pulled. The baldufa balla.
- Quality of the turn (Majorcan vocabulary, DCVB): if it turns finely and without oscillating and tickles the hand, fa rèi (Artà); if it turns rough, you have cars or reels (Sóller); If it is tied wrong and turns crooked, fa bossa (Artà).
- Rotlo game: throw it inside a circle painted on the ground; The one left inside receives blows from the others. The old baldufa that receives the blows is the baldufa dels pois (Mall.).
Vocabulary
- baldufa / boldufa (Manacor) / baldrufa (Petra, Vilafranca): top; pronunciation variants.
- ballar: turn the baldufa.
- fer rèi: spin fine and soft (Artà).
- tenir carros / carretells: turn rough (Sóller).
- fer bossa: turn incorrectly due to being poorly tied (Artà).
- baldufa dels pois: old baldufa that receives blows (Mall.).
- pois: blows with the tip of another baldufa.
- «Ara balla sa baldufa»: «now it is being done» (Mall.).
- «Fer trucs i baldufes»: do what one wants (Mall.).
History
- Etymology: from the Arabic ẖudrūfa, a toy that spins quickly making noise, contaminated by ball (DCVB).
- 1817: "dau and the waste of the press" (Aguiló, DCVB).
- 19th century: «more satisfied than a child with nothing» (Marian Aguiló, Poesies, DCVB).
- 20th century: street toy until the 1970s-80s (to be verified); today, workshop and fair.
On veure'n
- Museum of Mallorca, ethnological section (Wall) (piece to be verified).
- Wood turners and toy shops on the island (check who turns them today).
Why is it design
- Energy stored in a rope: the arm loads, the rope transmits, the shape rotates.
- One shape, three jobs: toy, drill and bearing share the geometry of the pointed pear.
- Quality vocabulary: Mallorcan children had words to evaluate the turn (fa rèi, tea carts): quality control made language.
For the project
- Piece: olive baldufa from a Mallorcan turner with the turning vocabulary sheet.
- Children's rotlo workshop with baldufes turned on the island.
- Recover the foradar baldufa with an adobacossis (if there is any left).
Frequently asked questions
What is Baldufa?
Top. Pear-shaped piece of wood with an iron tip. A rope is wound, thrown with force to the ground and rotated on the tip (DCVB). In Mallorca, baldufa also…
What are the traditional words for Baldufa?
Some words: baldufa / boldufa (Manacor) / baldrufa (Petra, Vilafranca), baldufa dels pois, ballar, fer bossa, fer rèi, pois, tenir carros / carretells, «Ara balla sa baldufa».
Sources
Working text from the Disseny Indígena knowledge base, machine-translated from Spanish.