Summary of Week 2

Well, after a fun and eventful first week we spent our second week making, of course, more cob! Where as last week we worked mostly with Lindsay on her roof and room, we spent this week working with Trilby and Sasha. The 2 projects we spent the most time on were the new cob oven and the front wall.

The original cob oven began breaking down and was created as a temporary fix. So, with some planning from Sasha, we began to work on its successor. This oven is much larger and has space for firewood storage below it, (pictures to follow shortly!). The parts we worked on were making layers of cob and rock to create the base. We then created an arch form to mold cob around. According to Sasha, arches are the strongest architectural form, so once the cob dries it will form a strong arch that will weigh in against itself. After creating the base, we began to fill in the rest of the oven. Can't wait to see the finished product!

We spent the majority of the week working on the front wall. When we started it was merely a retaining wall with about 3 feet of cob on top, and by the time we finished all it needed was a coat of paint. We started by adding small pieces of wood on top to support the final large piece of wood which would keep rain off the wall. After those had been filled in with cob, we migrated to the bottom portion of the wall, the retaining wall, and put our plastering skills to use by plastering it with a lime plaster. On Wednesday we headed over to Daryl's to get a large piece of wood. While Maddy and I plastered, Sasha worked on the oven and Trilby cut the wood to match the curve of the wall. It was pretty tricky.

After much time spent tweaking the large piece of wood, it was finally layed on top of the wall. We then plastered with a final plaster, and aside from some final planing, the front wall was finished!

We're so excited for our last week at the Villa. This project has been such a great learning experience, and we can't wait to see what's in store!