I had to fill a space in a strawbale wall above the bales and betwixt some rafters. I had filled the space with some light clay a year ago, but it was wet and never dried resulting in decay. The light clay could have worked if it had a chance to dry over the warmer months, but I placed it in the wall during fall so it didn’t get a chance to dry. In the spring I ripped the rotting material out and left the cavity empty. The only thing between the inside and the outside was a 4″ cob wall attached to a 2 x 12″ wood stud – which does the trick, but in the winter months collects frost.
This fall I just wanted to fill the cavity and provide some insulation to the upper part of the wall. The choices were to create small bales that would fit into the the spaces; try more light clay ( this time drier ), or pack some poly-propylene bags with straw and stuff it. I choose to use the bale bags this time. Continue Reading…
I visited Rex Rose’s cobprojects.info today and found that Rob Nelson ( a.k.a Robbibabba ) created a video on of Meka Bunch’s beautiful cob cottage. Robbibabba has also been posting some natural building photos from his recent trip through Oregon and Northern California to Flickr.
It’s sculptable. Almost any shape can be created with cob.
It’s non-toxic. It’s friendly to both you and the earth.
It’s available locally for cheap or for free.
You can re-work it. It’s both additive and subtractive.
It’s sticky and malleable when wet and dries like stone.
Colors- You can use different colored clay and tints.
Finishes – If you’re one for patinas there are hundreds of recipes for finishes. Bee’s wax, lime plasters, manure, paper-cob, straw-flakes – oh the list goes on and on.
Plays well with others – You can use cob with wood, metal, cement, earthbags, strawbales and other materials.
Recycle it. Once your cob object has reached the end of its life span – recycle it. No special accommodation needed. Let it melt away into the earth from which it came.
The Watts Towers, located in the Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles, was created by an Italian immigrant by the name of Simon Rodia. Construction began in the 1920s and was completed in the year 1954. He created the towers as a labor of love… “I had in mind to do something big – and I did it”.
The materials he used to erect the sculpture consisted of steel rod and pipes, wrapped with a wire mesh coated with mortar. This is a form of ferro-cement. FE or ferrum has it’s roots in the Latin word for iron. Steel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron. Most of the metal in the Towers were from near by railroad waste. The mortar was typically made from cement and sand. Rodia covered the structure with mosaics consisting of shells, glass bottles, pottery and tile.
It is said that he worked on the project for decades and then, in 1955 left – never to return.
