Feature wall

When you walk in our front door you will see in front of you a work of art in rammed earth. This is our feature wall and we are building it now. It divides the lounge room from the entrance foyer. It has had many changes during its conception but is now emerging in its final form - a landscape drawn in multi-coured earth layers. It is 4 m tall and will penetrate the roof. Our firebox will stand in front of it on the lounge room side and its flue will pass up its face.

Maryanne and Andy designed and planned it and we all collected the many component materials for its construction. These included a nautilus shell from Vanuatu, various shells collected on our voyages, pink shells from the Sunset Beach on Babuda, many more shells from nearby Shelly Beach, special rocks from various places, gum nuts, bits of drift wood, seaweed extract, blue metal FCR (fine crushed rock), limestone FRC, ironstone FCR, dolerite FCR, plum stone FCR, recycled concrete, sand, some bitumen compound, oxides and various other secret ingredients. Andy and his team mixed the various brews and placed them in the forms under Maryanne's guidance.

It started yesterday with the first lift, continued today with the next 4 lifts (600 mm forms) and will be completed tomorrow with the final 2 lifts. Late today yesterday's forms had to be removed giving us a first view of the finished artwork. It looks spectacular! (The blue bits in the nautilus shells are packing to prevent earth from entering the shell during construction and will be removed when the earth has matured)