Making handmade bricks (part II)

Never got around to posting these. And I will be brief. Someday i will put it all together.
Digging the "clay" .  Truth be known it is more silty than clay.  It is what we have.  Willifred digging the clay and pounding into fine clumps.

We mix with about 40% volcanic sand.  Sifting out stones. 

What gets sifted out.  A stone in a raw brick will cause the brick to burst during  firing.

Stacking the bricks.  Black bricks are charcoal dust 'brickettes", our fuel source. 

more brickettes and you can see the sprinkling of the dust.

Close up of the sand.

The kiln is built up with measured charcoal dust between layers.  Kiln  is started  by firewood in the opening like in the old days.  using a pipe to push firewood way in on the second day.

After a few hours doors are closed up until folowing day.  then more firewood added.  sometimes air vents are left and sometimes it is closed up completely.

The first part is getting the moisture out of the bricks.  Above picture it is mostly steam rising out of the bricks.  It takes about 48 hours or more for the moisture to get out of the 28,000 bricks.  Then the heat needs to rise slowly up to 1300F

Look closely and you notice the heat waves on top.  this is about 3 meters high

Me standing on the wall looking down when the burnign has reached top

Vaulted buffet table

Two months ago we spent 2 nights in Istanbul so I could see some big domes. I looked around two.  I need a month to see some more

But there was numberous other interesting stuff to see if you are interested .  Here I post some masonry that might not normally be posted.  The precision on this butress of the AgaSophia is impressive.

This is on some unnamed wall we walked by.

Many streets are paved with these stones.  I even saw people repairing some sections.

Riding around the bus we would fly by interesting looking stuff.  This one seems to have a living roof.

The Wall around the old city is huge, with lots of arches and great stone work.

Another that seems is habited.

Spam on Comments

I had turned off word verification on comments as it is cumbersome and there wasn't much spam.

Times change and there is constant emails notifying me of spam posts, and i have to delete them , so I have turned word verification back on.  Live with it.

Timbrel Vaulted Stairs

I am a convert to Timbrel vaulting, Catalan Vaulting, or Cohesive vaulting.
Stronger, looks better but slower and more expensive.  My first serious piece is the top half of the stairs in the vault house.

Top looking down.  Something about the light makes is look grey.

Looking up the top half, but the interesting part is the vault, not the stairs.

Think of it as laminates.  I did put some steel in between the first and second tiles, however I will try without.  Before putting the treads on I jumped and pounded on the stairs.  It feels like reinforced concrete. No movement.

The view from below.  more aesthetic than the bricks on edge.

From the other side.  I am storing up these tiles so i can do a bigger roof.

It took me a year to stop thinking about it and just do it.

THE PROCESS

                               

We drew a catenary arch on plywood, mounted it upside down.  This gave us a side wall to "glue" the tiles on two sides.

After removing the plywood on the side we added some more rows.

Lots of gypsum plaster on top side helps temporarily hold it.

Next a course at 45degree, then one long side across.

  Laminated tiles!

kitchen ceiling finished

I think our pressed sawdust board is not great for reusing unless you plaster the whole thing.  Old holes become smooth but the rest of the board is a bit differe.  the old paint is smoother .  I just got it reasonable and hope no one looks at it too much.

Rockefeller Chapel University of Chicago

One can't build vaults without coming accross the work of Gaustavino.  On our trip we passed Chicago for 10 hours and new that he had done the ceiling for this chapel.  My brother in law chuck went to grad school there so it was a perfect way to spend time with them.  Besides seeing my first Gaustavino roof, I also saw a Frank Loyd wright home, Mohamed Ali's house, Elijah Mahamed's house, Obama's neighborhood, etc.


 

another chapel on campus, the entry way