Founder, Gayle Parsons, sums up the Summer Print week by week.
Week 9
The week started really well, with a great weather forecast for the entire week which was amazing.
We have started to add fibre to our mixes and to print some different experimental shapes which Megan has designed. We’ve had some success incorporating Warmcel, an insulation fibre manufactured from old newspapers. We had thought it would clump together in the mix but it didn’t and it printed well. We look forward to the lab test results!
We also used chopped straw (8 times through the leaf blower!) and hemp shiv, both of which produced good prints. However, an attempt to use sheep’s wool – which had high hopes for – was a disaster, turning into ‘felt’ and getting tangled and matted around the plaster mixer.
The earth pile is diminishing rapidly and we are working hard with the volunteers to refine all of it so we can start to prepare our mix for some larger prints as we move to the end of our on-site residency. These are likely to be a bench, a side table and some planters.
