chine which is basically like a back
to front vacuum cleaner. We also played around with mixing some of it in with
our clay plasters (there was a fair bit of it lying around once Frances had finished).
It seems to make an excellent additive to clay plasters, making them a bit more
like papier mache. We have done some test patches, so we'll see how they dry.
Our thanks to Frances for an efficient and reliable service.
Last week we fitted the front windows to the house, and they made such a difference
to the look of the whole place. It is like painting the eyes into a portrait,
the whole look of it comes to life. Our next couple of steps are now to put a
second coat of plaster on the ceilings upstairs, and to fit the upstairs windows.
We will then begin the work of putting in the floors upstairs. We also want to
put in the rest of the downstairs windows, to keep moving towards sealing in
the whole building. I recently went to a quarry near Skibbereen to get the stone
slabs we will need for the window will,s so they are now ready to go in.
It has been lovely to see how the plastering begins to pick out the shapes of
these massive walls. Plastering onto cob allows you to really go with the form
of the cob and create something really beautiful. The mix for our scratch coat
plaster (for anyone out there wanting to have a go)is 4 1/2 parts sand to 3 parts
sieved subsoil to one part clay slip to half a part chopped straw. It really
is lovely stuff, you'll never go back to gypsum! For the second coat that we
will start soon, we will be adding flour paste (rather like wallpaper paste...)
which makes the plasters harder and also non-dusting.
Building Diary
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