[Cob] plaster, tests, and remember SAND

[Amanda Peck]

Don't do what I just did?

Forget that lime plaster needed sand?  result--miniature earth oven to be 
used as a toad house--looked like a turtle's back!


To some extent what your local ingredients really consist of determines your 
mixes.  How much of what kind of clay is there in the bank you are 
harvesting from?  What's your sand like?  Not necessarily the same from the 
logging road down the hill to the quarry west of town.  In other words, some 
of the quilt look, at least on the bottom layer(s) is inevitable, even if 
you're working on your second house two miles from the first.

How "all natural, all local" do you want things? If prickly pear juice comes 
from what counts as an endangered species in your county, would you still 
use it?

How much work do you really want to do?  If five layers result in walls 
suitable for a photo shoot for glamorous house magazine, would you settle 
for two?
..............

Dorethy wrote:

Part of the cob workshop I missed out on because of illness was the part 
about plasters.  Very soon I will need to know what ingredients I need to 
plaster my cob house, and so must begin experimenting.  Does anyone have 
hints or shortcuts to help me eliminate the options that obviously won't 
work, to make my determinations?  Please don't tell me to read another book. 
  So many books have so many different ideas--some say 3 layers, others say 
4 to 6 or even more, and I'm confused.  Maybe there aren't any shortcuts and 
I must put down enough base coat test patches to test all the possible 
second and third layers--this could be about 10 to the third power--I don't 
think my little storage shed has enough space for that many test patches, or 
else I'll be finished then and it will look like a patchwork quilt and I'll 
just give up and let it BE THAT.

help?

Dorethy

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