Friends, Cobbers, Country Folk,
Yes. We have finally made it! Just under 3 years after we began the build we are spending our first night in our cob home. We are so happy.
A massive thank you, especially to all our amazing interns; Alastair, Graeme, Grant, Karen, Peter, Sam, Thomas, Ben, Felix, Karen, Leila, Martin, Pauliina, Shaun, Greg, Issac, Jo, Joe, Paddy, Remi & Taylor.
Also we must mention Pat, Gerry, Micheál, John, Seamus, Sara, Cassandre, Noleen, Ricardo, Lauren, Matilde, Jo & Mark, Camilla, Ali & Brian, Carrie & Nalia & Nan, Carolann, Coenrad &Courtney and family, James, the Hollies crew, the Duffys (Pete, Carmel, Siobhan, Alex, Tom, Didi, Aidan...), Bee & Rob, Willie, Dave & Eileen, Deirdre and Andrew, Jimmy, Colin & Feile, Wes and Will.
An extra special thanks to all the teachers and tradespersons, Jim, Christo, Jo, Xavi, Ken, Timmy, Shane, Thomas, Sean, Joe, Richie, Tommy,Fred, Feidhlim all at Cob Cottage Company - Ianto, Linda & Tammy.
Lastly to both Therese's and Paul's family and friends for all their help and kindness throughout.
We will post some photos very soon
Love and good wishes wherever you may be.
Paul, Therese & Áine xxx
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Friday, February 15, 2013
Spring has arrived....Paddy and Pauliina have been working on a very interesting project in England over the winter....see the following link for a news report:
http://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/story/2013-02-07/volunteers-help-shack-woman/
http://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/story/2013-02-07/volunteers-help-shack-woman/
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Friday, October 5, 2012
Plaster Party Part 1
Many old friends arrived in Nenagh to begin plastering the interior of our house on the 17th Sept. Our group was led by "Master plaster duo" from Holland - Christo and Xavi, and by Jo, and Graeme - a.k.a "Stag Man".
In advance, there was a lot of preperation required. Remi, Pauliina and Paul enjoyed adding some wooden features to the house - shelves and steps and seats - using some interesting pieces of timber, many sourced from Pete Duffy's collection in Meath. As things hotted up Graeme arrived to give us a timely injection of energy as we worked hard to get the base coat up on the upper end of the house so that it would be dry for the plasterers. Therese, Claire and Camilla helped apply some last minute basecoat plaster and Sean put up shelves in the pantry while Eamon cleaned the beams.
We were lucky to have some budding plasters on the team also - Thank you to Leila, Paddy, Pat, Tom, Carmel, Aidan, Didi, Siobhan, Alex and of course Therese. It was nice to have someone from each of the 3 internship with us - a special thanks to Graeme, Leila, Pauliina and Paddy.
So we had a good crew to tackle the rather daunting task of plastering those curved walls, many niches and window alcoves and between all the knee braces and beams. Work began with great sense of endeavour and comraderie and despite the trials of an Irish October over half the house is now plastered with lovely clay plaster and lime in the kitchen. Also the base coat has been applied almost everywhere...much to Paul's delight! Making this plaster using soil from the site and straw from the field was an arduous task but also very satisfying. Thanks to everyone for all the tireless screening!
All in all it was a great couple of weeks, sandwiched by a trip to the Aran Islands for a dry stone walling course and a trip to Sligo for a course in using "Natural Edge Wood" with Colin Richie. We also managed a trip to Phillip Quinn and family in Holycross.
Hope to see you all again for Part 2 in the new year
Shadows
In advance, there was a lot of preperation required. Remi, Pauliina and Paul enjoyed adding some wooden features to the house - shelves and steps and seats - using some interesting pieces of timber, many sourced from Pete Duffy's collection in Meath. As things hotted up Graeme arrived to give us a timely injection of energy as we worked hard to get the base coat up on the upper end of the house so that it would be dry for the plasterers. Therese, Claire and Camilla helped apply some last minute basecoat plaster and Sean put up shelves in the pantry while Eamon cleaned the beams.
We were lucky to have some budding plasters on the team also - Thank you to Leila, Paddy, Pat, Tom, Carmel, Aidan, Didi, Siobhan, Alex and of course Therese. It was nice to have someone from each of the 3 internship with us - a special thanks to Graeme, Leila, Pauliina and Paddy.
So we had a good crew to tackle the rather daunting task of plastering those curved walls, many niches and window alcoves and between all the knee braces and beams. Work began with great sense of endeavour and comraderie and despite the trials of an Irish October over half the house is now plastered with lovely clay plaster and lime in the kitchen. Also the base coat has been applied almost everywhere...much to Paul's delight! Making this plaster using soil from the site and straw from the field was an arduous task but also very satisfying. Thanks to everyone for all the tireless screening!
All in all it was a great couple of weeks, sandwiched by a trip to the Aran Islands for a dry stone walling course and a trip to Sligo for a course in using "Natural Edge Wood" with Colin Richie. We also managed a trip to Phillip Quinn and family in Holycross.
Hope to see you all again for Part 2 in the new year
Enjoying some well deserved relaxation in our newly plastered sitting room
One of Ken's amazing stone carvings - This goblin goddess will protect our home
Sitting room - Pre Plaster
Xavi Plastering the Sitting Room in bathed in sunshine!
The lucky future inhabitants - Áine, Therese, & Paul
Christo - demonstrating Plaster after care - with timely sponging
The niches are tricky to plaster! - Luckily Jo (The master plasterer of small spaces) is on the job
 |
| Alex and Paul Mixing More Basecoat! |
The basecoat team - Therese, Carmel and Paddy
Shadows
Graeme - A steady hand for fine details
True Mudbandits - Didi and Tom
Pauliina Plastering in Comfort
Aidan entertains the masses
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Internship 2012
All good things must come to an end and our internship finished for 2012 on the 3rd of August. As usual, our last week was frantic and we visited the wonderful Duffy's in Meath and put up the rafters on the north side of their cute cob building. We were treated to lovely food, company and music.
Saturday, happened to be Jo's birthday and we were joined on site by some local friends for a moonlit evening with pizza and music
So fairwell to our 2012 interns; Jo, Joe, Taylor, Greg, & Paddy. Safe travels home and we wish you all the best with your future building projects. Many thanks to our other instructors; Ken, Graeme, Leila and Pauliina, and to Timmy too.
Twas a great summer, despite the weather. Things are quiet here now, but luckily Remi is still with us.
Thanks again
Paul, Therese and Áine xxx
Sunday, July 22, 2012
What did we learn during the week of July 9th?
1. Friends are wonderful. We were joined this week not only by the lovely and energetic former intern from Dublin, Leila, but also by Jo and Paddy's friends from the UK, Mark and Jo. With this new mix of folks, stimulating conversation, laughter, and work progress abounded, as did confusion over which Jo(e) one meant when speaking. Epithets such as "Man Joe" and "New Jo" were born and made us giggle.
2. Light straw clay is remarkable. Our main task this week was filling the timber wall forms in the workshop with this amazingly simple material to make beautiful, insulating walls. The process was fun and a nice change of pace from cobbing. We began by separating the strands of straw in a single bale on a raised mixing station made of scaffolding and tarps. Then, over the straw, we poured two small buckets of clay slip, which was 2/3 clay from our site and 1/3 pure grey clay from Paul's potter friend Pat, mixed with an industrial mixer not unlike a giant eggbeater. Next, we went to work tossing the straw with the clay slip so that each strand got a nice coating. It felt like tossing a giant dish of pasta with a creamy, muddy sauce. Yum! To make the light straw clay walls, we began by building up, from the floor of the workshop, about 3-4 inches of cob to make a nice strong base. Then, we worked away, stuffing and tamping in the light straw clay mix. We worked in about one foot sections, held in by plywood that we then unscrewed and raised up as the wall material dried. It was miraculous to see how solid these two seemingly wimpy materials became when brought together with a little bit of elbow grease and effort.
3. Cob and wood go well together. While half of us worked on the light straw walls in the workshop, the other half continued to work inside the house, inching up the formed and free-form cob walls and fitting a few lovely lintels above two of the kitchen and one of the bedroom windows. The effect of wood and cob together is gorgeous, warm, and fuzzy.
4. Dialect is the spice of language. Our new friend Mark gave us some new words and expressions for our speech arsenals...
--lush (adj.): exceedingly delicious, pleasing, or delightful (e.g. craft beer or dark chocolate with sea salt)
--get on (imperative verb): 1. do it; go for it 2. you're kidding!
--ace (adj.): see lush
5. Traditional music night at Rohan's is entertaining (and dangerous). Many of us were brought to tears by the sweet sounds of traditional Irish ballads and reels that came sweeping into the night at Rohan's on Wednesday. We're blaming the clock behind the bar, (which we later came to realize is perpetually stuck at 12:30) for staying out until 3:00 in the morning. However, we have no one but ourselves (and one too many pints of Guin-dog) to blame for the wretched way we felt onsite the next morning.
Lessons learned. Peace, love, and mud!
1. Friends are wonderful. We were joined this week not only by the lovely and energetic former intern from Dublin, Leila, but also by Jo and Paddy's friends from the UK, Mark and Jo. With this new mix of folks, stimulating conversation, laughter, and work progress abounded, as did confusion over which Jo(e) one meant when speaking. Epithets such as "Man Joe" and "New Jo" were born and made us giggle.
2. Light straw clay is remarkable. Our main task this week was filling the timber wall forms in the workshop with this amazingly simple material to make beautiful, insulating walls. The process was fun and a nice change of pace from cobbing. We began by separating the strands of straw in a single bale on a raised mixing station made of scaffolding and tarps. Then, over the straw, we poured two small buckets of clay slip, which was 2/3 clay from our site and 1/3 pure grey clay from Paul's potter friend Pat, mixed with an industrial mixer not unlike a giant eggbeater. Next, we went to work tossing the straw with the clay slip so that each strand got a nice coating. It felt like tossing a giant dish of pasta with a creamy, muddy sauce. Yum! To make the light straw clay walls, we began by building up, from the floor of the workshop, about 3-4 inches of cob to make a nice strong base. Then, we worked away, stuffing and tamping in the light straw clay mix. We worked in about one foot sections, held in by plywood that we then unscrewed and raised up as the wall material dried. It was miraculous to see how solid these two seemingly wimpy materials became when brought together with a little bit of elbow grease and effort.
3. Cob and wood go well together. While half of us worked on the light straw walls in the workshop, the other half continued to work inside the house, inching up the formed and free-form cob walls and fitting a few lovely lintels above two of the kitchen and one of the bedroom windows. The effect of wood and cob together is gorgeous, warm, and fuzzy.
4. Dialect is the spice of language. Our new friend Mark gave us some new words and expressions for our speech arsenals...
--lush (adj.): exceedingly delicious, pleasing, or delightful (e.g. craft beer or dark chocolate with sea salt)
--get on (imperative verb): 1. do it; go for it 2. you're kidding!
--ace (adj.): see lush
5. Traditional music night at Rohan's is entertaining (and dangerous). Many of us were brought to tears by the sweet sounds of traditional Irish ballads and reels that came sweeping into the night at Rohan's on Wednesday. We're blaming the clock behind the bar, (which we later came to realize is perpetually stuck at 12:30) for staying out until 3:00 in the morning. However, we have no one but ourselves (and one too many pints of Guin-dog) to blame for the wretched way we felt onsite the next morning.
Lessons learned. Peace, love, and mud!
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