Getting Dirty

I'll never forget the first time I found that Jim McDonald's earth, straw, and cob-loving friend from the Strawbale Studio in Oxford, Michigan was my middle school art teacher. Over the past week, I've had the chance to reconnect with Michigan's own natural builder extraordinaire Deanne Bednar. She taught me how to build little clay houses back in junior high, and she continues to teach about building houses with clay today.

Deanne arranged a cob and earthen plaster workshop at Jim's house in order to share her valuable skills and help finish Jim's basement. Along with the assistance of one of her interns/WWOOFers, Deanne showed us how to test the clay content of the soil and filter it through screens to remove larger stones. Our project in particular involved earthen plaster on top of drywall. This basically means that we wanted to smear dirt with high amounts of clay and straw in it onto an ordinary wall, and make it into a new, more finished one. The earthen surface would function as plaster and insulation, while also creating a certain ambiance and warm, natural aesthetic.

Drywall, however, is a slippery surface to get mud to adhere to, so last week we had to create an adhesion coat. For this, we mixed flour and boiling water together to create a paste, which we added in proportion to our clay soil mixture and water.

This created gooey muddy deliciousness, which we smeared across the walls like fingerpaint. Deanne also fully encouraged playing with the mud, slapping and throwing it against the wall.

I met woman named Carol at the workshop, who is a farmer at the Kids' Cottage at Kensington Metropark. Not only is Carol amazing, but the facility and program she works with at Kensington is spectacular (Deanne helped design a cob and earthen plaster space for them there as well). Carol told me a story about someone saying to her about her work once "You think this job is nothing but fun!" Carol looked the person straight in the eye and said, "You're damn right I do!"

This week the adhesion coat was fully dry, and we were able to create a similar earthen plaste r mixture to use on the drywall and a cement wall, which needs no primer coat because of its more porous surface. We had a jolly time mixing the clay this time, as Deanne de monstrated for us how to dance around in the dirt and mix it with your feet. Who wouldn't be hooked after that?

The plaster felt very similar to the earlier mix, but needed to be applied with more care in order to be sure it would stick to the wall properly. We also smoothed the coat out with tools the create a nice finished surface. Jim will probably sculpt shelves, designs, or benches into the wall later on, all of which can be done with techniques like cobbing, earthen plaster, and/or hay bales. Below is an example of an example of a design from the Strawbale Studio.

Deanne invited me to attend the 2009 Natural Building Colloquium as an intern with her later this month--an amazing and generous opportunity! Unfortunately I can't go, but definitely check out all the great things going on there.