Hybrid adobe and inspiring garden plots....

Today i bused off to a hybrid adobe workshop at Mullumbimby Community Gardens, with no idea exactly what 'hybrid adobe' meant but hopefull that whilst the specifics were to 'make garden bed edges', that the techniques learned could also be applied to building. Turns out we were creating garden bed edges in the shape of a love heart in the childrens space. A preliminary concrete shape had been laid, onto which we were to work, using our hollow rectangle forms filled with the hybrid adobe mix pressed down. Pictured here is the soil for planting in in the middle, then the concrete base to the upper. With the first layer of hybrid adobe below, and the brick form filled with mix.

The mixture was 3 parts sawdust ( sieved to remove big chunks and pieces), 2 parts sand and then adding one part concrete. Mixing the sawdust and sand properly first up, adding the concrete continuing to blend, and then just enough water to activate the concrete. Taking a handfull out and forming it into a ball it should gel, without excess fluids. The moulds overlap the previous brick by about two inches, the gap formed as the mould presses down, later blended, and matched to the underlying concrete forms edge. Heres layer one...

Which dried pretty sucessfully before we all added layer 2.....

Now by the end of the day its getting close to finished!

I took a break to walk around the gardens and simply photograph some of the beauty to be had. Spring rocks, and some of the plots were truley inspiring in their abundance....

All in all, it was a fine way to spend a saturday. The little people will be able to clamber all over the garden bed edges quite happily and the same mixture can be used to make house walls. I found out through chats that there are a variety of brews that can be used for building. Like 'cob' which is simply clay and sand mixed together. Im also interested in the brews that can be used to render strawbale buildings, or the rammed earth into tyres which become the walls of 'Earthships'. Hhhhmmm more researching to be done!

Colour charts and a red nasturtium ....

Im studying Natural History Illustration by correspondance, which is great in terms of flexability but a tad dangerous for the ol procrastination and general delaying of the inevitable. I was doing ok until we hit watercolours, and therefore some colour theory.  My usual painting technique involves seeing what colours I have and making the best of them. For the course we had to buy specific colours and then ensued very specific colour mixing charts, eek! I was afeared of them somewhat, being more comfortable in black and white. So 3 months (I know) and several attempts later, theyre finally done!

Now I can move on to the assessment excercise in colour. So first up is a tonal master drawing and then a colour sketch, which basically maps out all the ingredients, with a swatch of each colour mixed. That gets sent in for comments and then I can proceed to add watercolours to master drawing. It all seemed very anal to me at first, but having completed half of the process i can see the sense to it now. Any mess ups are made on the colour sketch, not the original drawing.

So I chose a red nasturtium, Tropaeolum majus to be more formal. Its the first flower from the seedlings I pinched off someones front garden, it was so abounding in them I doubt anyone even noticed. Its symbolic of my struggle to get vegies and herbs going in seaside environs which is actually coming along this spring! Still, a very proud mother, hence the illustration.

 Spring blessings to southerners, and happy growing wherever on the planet you find yourself!