Using techniques that have been around for centuries, these adobe blocks are being made by hand by students of an earlier workshop.  This workshop will teach how to mix adobe with elements found most anywhere: clay & sand are added to water, mixed well (with hands or feet), then straw is added.  The mix is placed in simple wooden forms in both small and large sizes.  The forms are removed and used again and again.  Blocks that have dried in the sun will be used in a small garden wall project to demonstrate the use of this material in building.

Most everyone likes this technique!  This photo shows how malleable straw bales can be.  This bale will be used as the building block for the curved portion of the wall being built in this workshop.  More will be stacked to form the central section of the small garden wall.  After bales are stabilized with bamboo pins, the adobe block and cob (hand formed adobe-type mix) sections will be added.

Students help place partial bales in the lower course of the straw bale wall to fill in gaps where needed.  All of the materials will be placed on a rubble trench footing and stabilized.  The photo shows the end where the cob section will rest next to the bales.  After all three sections were in place, the wall was coated with earthen plaster and sculpted to suit the whimsy of the participants and owner.  The nearest end became a caricature of a comical dragon’s head.   This wall functions as the edge of a garden space, as well as an amusing entranceway into the owner’s private space.

The straw bales, adobe blocks & cob have been placed to form a small wall section.  Here the students are working on applying earth plaster on both courses of straw bales, after the bales are stacked like bricks and the window “buck” has been placed in the center of the bales, to demonstrate one of the techniques used in straw bale construction. If you look closely, you can see the yellow eye of the dragon (a gourd) in the cob section just at the left edge of the photo.

On another day, high school students are forming another wall section with a cob section on the right side. Rain didn’t even phase the mud madness as the plaster was applied to the bales and a formidable dragon’s head was sculpted (right side of the photo). Today this wall section has a tile “cap” (which resembles scales)and other features to protect the wall, and can be seen on the south end of the DAWN SouthWest site.

This wall section is a sampler, demonstrating the potential for creative art form using these materials.  Windows can be formed with recycled colored glass bottles; wrought iron, glass blocks, other found objects adorn the wall, which functions as a privacy screen, garden wall and also serves as a palette for the creative mind.  Small creatures made of earth plaster and artistic sculptures finds its way into the wall, and the ideas for combining the materials, forms and design are limited only by the imagination, energy and desired function of the structure. The wall will be finished with a lime/clay plaster and capped with more ceramic roof tiles for protection.

Later, as the finish work is done, a lime clay plaster is applied for protection from weathering and wear.  The final coat in the photo above is a mix of flour paste, beautiful mauve color clay with mica and straw added, for both beauty and another layer to protect a wall that is both functional and fun!  This wall is part of a straw bale ramada shown on the home page that invites visitors to relax in a “cantina” of straw, straw clay, adobe block, cob and colorful natural clay paints with windows that diffuse and reflect the colors of the sunset....  Come, learn & play in the mud and see what creative and sustainable objects can be produced in a daylong workshop, using natural materials, enjoying great companionship, laughter & your imagination!