Applying clay plaster may be one of the most satisfying parts of building a natural home. Smoothing over cob or straw bale walls with a creamy clay plaster mix is incredibly satisfying and brings about a truly dramatic transformation. What was once coarse is made buttery and gracefully smooth. For a successful clay plaster job, it’s important to carefully prepare and mix your material. In this post, I will explain the preparation methods and recipe I use for most of my natural building work.
The past three days I have been busy applying finish earthen plaster to the interior of my cob house. I expect it will be done tomorrow. Here are a few photos of the plaster work in progress, along with some of the mosaics that are being installed underneath the rafters of the reciprocal roof.
A few days ago, Tamar suggested that perhaps I’d want to do a mosaic on the outside of my house. I’d been doing the exterior earthen plaster and was nearly complete, and I had only a small portion of wall remaining near the entryway. I took her up on the offer.
A week or so ago, while the weather was still reasonably comfortable, I decided to experiment with making an earthen finish plaster. I settled on ingredients and a recipe for my earthen plaster mix relatively easily after talking to others who have done plastering here at Dancing Rabbit in the past.
The past week or so has been quite eventful. There’s been mostly positive progress, but some negative, too.
Cobbing complete!
With Karen’s and my dad’s help, I completed cobbing. The walls are finally done! In just a few days, the gap between the walls and the roof was closed. It was very satisfying to see the final line of the wall meet the decking of the roof. It was awkward work having to stuff the small spaces, but it wasn’t too bad…



