This is the smaller of the 2 benches made of 6 bales. This is nearly finished awaiting minor touch ups and possibly a linseed oil plaster coat.
Tag Archives: bale
Frank does detail work
Frank a photographer and straw bale builder does some detail work on the smaller bench
The Second day of workshop went smoothly like the first.
This week we will do test coats to get the sand clay mix right, we are getting a lot of surface cracking. It’s hot and dry and windy which makes it a challenge to slow the drying down enough.
We had a good crew all day and a shift change around lunch like the first day.
Next weekend promises to be as much fun as this weekend come by any time after 9:00 e mail for directions etc
Marcus and friends day 1
This is a workshop on the East side of Tucson 2 straw bale benches with cob and earthen plaster finishes
skirting the finished wall
Rhiwena skirting the bottom
wall final coats 034
Final coat adobe mix sand and linseed oil hand smeared with rubber bloves
top crown scratch coat
Cap scratch coat
Pressed in with a pool trowel
Wall is nearing completion
curvilinear wall slide show
[flickr video=5611319336 show_info=true secret=e8865a78ab w=500 h=375]
curvilinearwallslide a video by bartswindow on Flickr.
curvilinearwallslide a video by bartswindow on Flickr.
slide show start to finish of core shape
scratch and finish coats will follow later this week
top crown of core
Curvilinear wall is taking shape
The Wall is nearly five feet tall.Taller than Ram Das the be here now cactus, so named for repeatedly bringing Rhiwena in to the moment.
The next steps will be prepping for the cap getting the final shape, and level, to the top of the core and smoothing out irregularities on the sides. The closer to finish the shape of the core the better. The scratch and finish coats require sifted materials, we want to use as little of these as possible.
Joe came up and helped a day, and learned how to do the mixes, and build up the core.
Having a third person to help with mixes made all the difference. The pace is much smoother and we got to catch breathers. This is the first day we got to the one foot of lift per day pace I wanted to be at from the beginning.
Straw Bale Project at Joes
straw bale project at Joes slide show on Flickr
This is an ongoing project creating a sitting area and rain water harvesting feature, while increasing the privacy of the front sun room.
The yard is full of gravel so we are using that for footers and the soil has a lot of clay so we are using that for cob.
Footer is hardware cloth cut in to 6″ strips, staked up and wired to rebar and filled with gravel from the yard
The Straw bales are spiked with rebar down in to the gravel footer, then sewn together with bailing wire to bond the whole structure together. All the gaps and seams are packed with chips of straw or loose straw.
Core form of straw bales is anchored and sewn together ready for cob.
First Layer of filler cob applied where the bench meets the wall
