Clay Brick » Entries tagged with "building"
Living a natural life
With our rapidly dwindling natural resources it makes sense to use our resources as wisely as possible. Building a cob house in which to live is one good place to start. I know that I wouldn’t mind building and living in a cob house. Although I make a living with modern technology, I am pretty much a traditionalist. Back in Bloem I enjoyed a rural life-style, and that is still my first choice, although not possible at the moment. Enjoying a cob house is not restricted to living out in the country though, as there is a magnificent brand new cob house in Muizenberg. In Grahamstown, a cob house is nearing completion. Cob is a widely recognized natural building resource, and is used extensively overseas. Here in South Africa, well, we’re too bothered with … Read entire article »
The beauty of dry stone walls
Well, one obvious “beauty” is that, if one has suitable rocks or stones lying around on one’s own property, one can build a dry stone wall for free. A bit of hard labour, but free. Another beauty is that it’s almost considered an art, learning how to fit the rocks together, with no concrete between, and the wall stands beautifully, firm and attractive. A craft. An art. Some people go to lessons on how to build dry stone walls – groups of people that learn together – and building your own wall with only stones, in a group, is a great idea. Get the whole family involved – or have a dry stone wall building social function. In good old South Africa, celebrate your finished product afterwards with a braai and … Read entire article »
Filed under: rocks and stones
Owning your very own traditional clay oven
When we took over the Clay Brick Trust site I was at a bit of a loss, as I could not imagine that clay, and or bricks and or trust had anything going for it. To cut a long story short, Terry started working on the site last night, and then it dawned on me: The ultimate yuppie, and not-a-yuppie toy: A backyard feature constructed of, yes, clay and bricks. Traditional does not go back too far, as our not too long ago ancestors used to use hollowed out termite or ant hill thingies in which to bake. These were simply easier to use than building a new oven every 100 miles. These anthill ovens also worked very well. When aforementioned trek ancestors found a place in which to settle, they … Read entire article »
Filed under: clay
The original claybricktrust.co.za website information
The domain claybricktrust.co.za used to belong to a web design client of ours, Neil Sparg, who has a business in Nahoon, East London, supplying blocks, bricks, sand, and stone for building purposes in the East London area. It was just a one-page site for brief information about Neil’s Clay Brick Trust, and for visitors to it to use to contact him. But Neil is a busy man, and didn’t market the site much, or the link to it. We did the web design but did not take on the marketing of the site too. So, we’ve let the site lapse, with Neil’s permission, and instead of letting the domain name again become available for anyone to register, we’ve taken it over ourselves and have turned it into this WordPress blog. Neil Sparg is … Read entire article »
Filed under: general
