| Cob is an ancient building technique consisting of clay-rich soil, sand, straw, and water. The ingredients are generally mixed with the feet, though some folks employ tools like mortar mixers, cement mixers and tractors (both large and small) to do some of the grunt work. Walls are built monolithically, meaning that instead of being made into bricks (like adobe), the mixture is loaded onto the structure by the "cob" (an Old English word meaning rounded mass or lump). Our cob bench is made entirely by hand. We got the sand and clay from local quarries, the straw from the local feed store. Both my husband and myself took 4-day cob courses with Cobworks and House Alive respectively. Such courses, while immensely helpful, aren't absolutely necessary to begin building with cob. Small projects like our bench are possible for even the most novice cobber. |
Visit Our Cobwood Shed...a work in progress.
Write to me: bc084@scn.org