Well we have to start somewhere, so by way of introduction, my name is Roop & I generally make things out of clay. I am one of the tutors on the Cob & Ceramics course at the Dartmoor Arts Project.
The course is we think, unique in that it offers a way of looking at and working with earth materials from two very different standpoints.
Cob is sub-soil made up of clay, sand & stone of varying sizes (shillet) mixed with straw. It was traditionally used as a building material in the South West of England, where the materials are readily available. Many of the older houses & farm buildings in Devon are made of Cob and typically are thatched.
Clay, another material readily available in Devon, is the weathered deposits of granite and there are substantial deposits in Devon, Cornwall & Dorset. The tradition of clay, pottery & sculpture is thousands of years old and goes back to some of our earliest civilisations.
to be continued...
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