#cob bench

[calendulacraft]

:: Natural Building ::

From stomping mud, to shaping, to sitting down on this earthen furniture -- here is the final product.

But first you might be wondering: why build a bench out of mud?

Good question.

Humans and other animals have been building shelter out of Earth since forever.

Earth is abundant.

Earth is everywhere.

And this technique, called cob, is simpy a combination of 5 common ingredients: clay, sand, straw, water & human energy.

All the clay came from a few feet away and we ended up buying a bit of sand & straw to find the perfect mixture. Really the most "costly" factor was time. But, as we plan to spend many hours sitting on this bench for years to come ... i think it was worth the effort.

[theforestalwaysreturning]

[buildnaturally]

This is a cob bench, made with clay soil dug from nearby and ammended with sand & straw.  Simple to build & comfortable to sit on.  It may seem like a clay bench couldn't be comfy, but it's all about the ergonomics.  I wrote an article explaining the specifics about how to build a bench that is comfortable that you can read here: www.buildnaturally.blogspot.com/2013/12/how-to-build-comfy-cob-bench.html