[Cob] Cob--colors and FLOOR PARTY

[Jane Mondrup]

Amanda Peck wrote:

> And little wooden strips as screed boards in a pattern.  Nailed into the 
> gravel.  After drying and shrinkage, pull them out and put a different 
> colored mix into the voids.  Wondering about that--ideas welcome--lime, 
> maybe, but darker would be nice.

I don't know if it's available in the US, but in Scandinavia you can buy a lot of different colours for lime and linseed oil paintings, some of them quite dark. They have been used traditionally for clay and brick houses and have been neglected for some decades when plastic paintings were applied everywhere, but they are coming back into fashion. Mostly it's some kind of metallic compound. If nothing else you ought to be able to get different colours of ochre (shades of yellow, red and brown) which will mix into both clay, lime and oil.

> Current idea--I'm told it's a pretty good idea to put reinforcement around 
> the main door, ceramic tiles is what the person who told the person who told 
> me used.  

Why is it a good idea with those reinforcements, and where exactly to you put them?