Sunday 9 January 2011

Making Paint while the sun shines


Actually I do all my gardening in the morning and late afternoon when it's cooler. During the sunniest part of the day I either mud the house or paint it. I've had fun making more than food recently, experimenting in recipes of the non-edible kind.

I've painted Caleb's room with goat's cheese paint. A mix of quark and lime putty and clay pigments. I'll have to take a photo of his wall. We worked on it together and it got a bit wild. He now wants to tone it down a notch. Pity. I was happy with the wild stuff. But will comply.

The mud walls are being painted with lime wash, which is made from lime putty (we made from quicklime as lime putty is hard to get, and expensive due to the cost of getting it to Tassie) water and pigment. I've used sandstone coloured clay pigment for the wall in the photo, but have 2 kg of titanium dioxide coming next week which will be used on all the internal walls for a white finish.

Lime is dangerous stuff to work with, being very caustic, hence safety glasses, and usually gloves, though not for this mock up. Typically someone pulls out a camera and I can't help but smirk at the lens. My mother has the same affliction. Usually why I'm found behind the darn thing and not in front of it.

3 comments:

Suryacem said...

Making Paint while the sun shines

Very Good title and post :) i liked it

Lee said...

Woah! I haven't been online much over the last few weeks, and suddenly catch up on your blog to find the house looking, well, looking terrific :-)

So - I'm hoping / guessing there will be a book about this "adventure" coming up, once the house is done? I hope so!

Linda Cockburn said...

Hi Leanne,
We get asked this a lot. I find it hard to answer because while I think there is merit enough in the idea it's a huge undertaking.
I'm also completely and utterly typecast in the genre of self-sufficiency. Which, while close to my heart, I like a bit of variety. Having been a writer of fiction long before Living the Good Life.
Still can't quite decide. I've suggested Trev might like to be the main writer this time around and we sswap roles, especially considering he's the builder.

Oh, and Ramses. Trev's going to write something on windows, but getting his in front of a computer is almost a gun point issue. Some stage, some time he promises he will.

Never know.

Cheers

L