[Ferro List] more fantastic fc

[xoutpost at netscape.com]

20 page pdf article by peter harris,
cannot remember if this is the same chap that wrote the book paul posted a bit ago

article ismore of the same, more of a diary than technical

chris
tecumseh, OK





Esoteric ferrocement
The symbolism of ferrocement is interesting. The
uncrushable but brittle married to the bendable but
unbreakable. A marriage of opposites. I had these
impressions as we built Dreamspace: the wire framework is
like the bones of the body; the chicken wire the muscle
layers, and the plaster is the skin. Or, the wire framework
which is woven together is like a spider’s web, beautiful in its
own right, ethereal, the wind whistling through it, but strong
and supportive. Then there is a transformation, and that
beauty is lost, but another is born: the beauty of the solid
enclosing form. Then even that is transformed when it is
carved and painted, losing its starkly beautiful bone-like look
and gaining whatever colours our aesthetic sense dictates.
Esoteric, frustrating ferrocement
And the journey of building in ferrocement is a good exercise
for would-be creators. It is a discipline of actually grounding
a pure perfect beautiful heavenly idea in those two very
stubborn and earthly materials, steel and concrete, hard and
heavy, recalcitrant and messy. Sometimes as Anna and I
laboured on the domes and arches of Dreamspace the steel
got very rusty and poky and springy, and the concrete got
very wet and cold, messy and abrasive, getting into all the
cuts the steel had made, ruining clothes, and dropping off
the mesh or sliding off trowels into gumboots, splattering
tools and ladders with mud that turned surprisingly quickly to
stuck-on stone. And just when we thought we were finished,
we found we weren’t; there was always another area to do or
another coat to put on. Then the daylight always seemed to
run out and we’d be cleaning up in the dark.
The need to keep the plastered areas wet for seven days was
another trial of patience. Our lovely work hidden, covered in

_____________________________________________________________
Netscape.  Just the Net You Need.