I got to tour  the Watts Towers this week in south central Los Angeles.  Simon or “Sam” Rodia called the sculpture in his backyard Nuestro Pueblo, or “our town.”  Spires of ferro-cement, tile, shells, found objects, broken glass mosaics.  Crafted meticulously over the course of 33 years (1921–1954).  I’m inspired and in awe of what one man can do.  A drop in a the bucket adds up to something big in time and that’s what Simon intended to do – make something BIG.  You can’t help but wonder about the man behind the art while wandering the space.  It would take months to even observe all of the details etched into the intricate monument.  A video called I Build Tower documents the story of Simon and his work ( preview on IMDB ).  I like where he says “You gotta do someting, thata they never got ‘em in the world”.

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I was fortunate to visit Joshua Tree this weekend. I met up with friends made at the Water Woman Festival in October.  During the festival  I didn’t really take any photos… to busy plerking ( play-working ).  This time I made sure to take some!

There were 4  building projects during the festival.  A temple led by Sun Ray Kelly; a cob bench and shade structure led by Kata Polano; Ray Cirino’s cob bench with built in rocket stove cooker; and a pond built by Gregory Glenn or the “goddess dipping pool”.  The temple and pool are complete, though the two cob benches are still under construction.  We were working on that this week end.

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It’s been super fun to watch the process of Ziggy and friends building his cob house, dubbed Gobcobatron, over the last year or so. It’s a new installation on the land of Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, a ecological and socially minded intentional community in northeastern Missouri. Ziggy has been busy working on a spiral designed cob house with a reciprocating living roof, a rocket stove, earthen floors and interior finishes. Now it seems that he’s ready to move in!

I’m gracious to Ziggy for documenting the process as he works step by step through building a cob house. Sharing insights and taking the time to document his experience, which is no small feat in it’s self. Congratulations!

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I’ve been spending some time at my brother Matt’s place in San Diego.  My  sister-in-law, Armida – the Diva,  has been known to cook ( ArmidaCooks.com )  so I built a cob oven for them in the  back yard.

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Oh, I’ve also added a few pictures to the  Cob Oven Group on Flickr »

Solunit Rocket Mass heater

This year I created another rocket stove mass heater.  This time with the benefit of experience.  I have to admit, when I constructed the Moonunit Rocket, I was flying by the seat of my pants. Guess it was a big experiment, but then again, so was this one!
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