Another busy day

Hi All,

I had another stirling day today.

It started out badly, as the tutor I was supposed to meet had not actually turned up due to a cancelled lesson.

Instead I dropped in on Graham Hayden to get contact details for the missing tutor.

I mentioned to Graham that I had emailed Wayne Stannett at Easton College, and Graham announced that Wayne was in the next classroom.

Wayne was very keen to push on with a major project at the college, as it seemed that his year tens where well ahead of schedule. To save the college from running out of things to teach, I offered to lay on some cob building workshops as well as assembling a bit of a curriculum with a view to building a bigger structure.

Stewart left in a positive mood and promised to get back to me to arrange a meeting with the college management team.

As Wayne left, another tutor, Chris, mentioned that I might like to meet Mandy Beckwith as she is planning to build a house out of cob!

Mandy and I immediately hit it off and she insisted that I come and visit the site before the build. I in turn have offered free labour when the build goes ahead, as this will provide invaluable experience for me later on.

Mandy mentioned that her Architect was a man called Dirk Bouwens and he was a real character.

I emailed Dirk with a view to meeting up for a chat. 

After lunch a lady called Rachel Garrard from Hockam school contacted me. She is friends with Bev Page of Eco Bugs and was very keen for me to come in and do an oven building work shop with a group of children. I priced the work shop and left Rachel in a very positive frame of mind about Cob-It.

A busy day and all before one o'clock in the afternoon!

Keep on cobbing.

Norwich City College

Todays meeting with Adie Amond of City College, went really well.
Adie was genuinely impressed with my ideas and is keen for me to visit the college construction school to introduce cob as a concept.
Providing the other tutors and the money men are happy it is hoped that I will hold several workshops at the college and build an oven for the students to use.
Adie is with me when I say that it (cob) should be part of the construction syllabus, so this could be the direction I go in.


Graham Hayden of Wayland Community High School gave me a contact at Easton College near Norwich, who I have approached to arrange a similar meeting to the ones I have had over the last couple of weeks.


I have a meeting tomorrow morning with a tutor from the college of West Anglia. Stuart was present on my first visit to the skills centre at the high school, and was keen to hear more about cobbing and for me. So tomorrow should see some interest generated in me visiting the college in Wisbech.


Keep on cobbing.

Cob in schools

Hi All,


Well today was productive. I had a meeting with Don from the Extended Schools project, who is keen to see disadvantage kids working with cob as an introduction to high school and the world of sustainable construction. (Awesome.)
Just before my meeting with Don this afternoon I had a call from Pauline Williamson from the Ormerston Victory Academy in Costessey. Pauline wants me to price up a project for her summer school involving sculpting four large mini beasts out of cob.
So it has been all go here at Cob-It. Keep checking for more updates as they come in.
I have a meeting tomorrow morning with a tutor from Norwich City College which should be exciting. 
Keep on cobbing.

Cob-It meets the Eco Bugs

Well this mornings meeting with Bev Page went well.
I arrived at Wayland Community High School and was met in reception by a very friendly Bev.

Bev and I discussed the possibilities of Cob-It working at the school alongside the Eco Bugs;  which included the building of a Cob oven.

Bev was excited at the possibility of the children being involved at all stages of the oven.

I gained a huge number of useful contacts in and around the Breckland area, including people from Gressenhall museum in Dereham and Easton College near Norwich.

I have another meeting scheduled for Thursday with a tutor from Norwich City college, so there are plenty more exciting things to come.

Eco-Bugs

Hi All,
Following on from the events of last week, it was recommended by Mr Rose the headmaster that I get in touch with a lady called Beth Page.
Beth is responsible for running the year 7 Eco Bugs group at the school and is by all accounts a bit of an eco warrior.


I called Beth today and had a wonderful conversation. I learned that Beth has actually been on a one day oven building course with Edwards Eco Building in Fleggburgh; so she has had a grounding in working with cob and it's principles.


Beth is also a Master Gardener and all round good egg. She has agreed to meet with me tomorrow morning to discuss the possibility of Cob-It building a pizza oven on site at the high school. How exciting.


I have high hopes for the future of Cob-It and will post the results of tomorrows meeting as soon as I get a sec.


Keep on cobbin'

Cob-It gets a logo.

Hi All,


Today saw another step forward for Cob-It, we got our first official logo.
All the thanks got to my oh so talented younger sister Gemma (www.petstails.co.uk) and her undoubted skills as a graphic designer.
Gemma turned in an awesome effort and then kept tweaking it until it ended up as it is on the homepage of my website www.cob-it.co.uk 
Thank you Gemma, I owe you an oven. (Not just for the logo, but for all of your help and support.)

The Rise of Cob-It

Hi all and welcome to the blog.


Seven months ago I was forced to give up work to help care for my eldest son, who had been diagnosed with Leukaemia.


One evening in a break in Chemotherapy, my wife and I were sat watching one of my favourite tv shows, River Cottage.
During the show one of the River Cottage crew built a cob oven in a back garden and within the same day was cooking delicious looking pizzas.


I felt inspired to follow in these footsteps but first, as is my way, I felt compelled to educate myself. So I set about reading every blog and thread on the subject as well as a very good book written by Kiko Denzer and his wife Hannah Field, both of whom are accomplished oven builders.


Within a few weeks I had accumulated enough knowledge to build a basic oven. 
This first oven took me ten hours to build and fire for the first time, and cost me very little in materials.


It was after the initial success of this oven that I decided that I could make a living building ovens.


Whilst surfing through yet another cob related thread, I cam across a company called Edwards Eco Building. Edwards Eco Building offer courses on cob construction, which was a completely new concept to me. Could you really build a house from mud that wouldn't resemble something akin to those in Africa.


After much research (again) I decided to sign up to the cob house construction course provided by Edwards.


Shortly before Christmas 2010 I was invited to attend a presentation at the local High school along with my wife and eldest son. After the presentation I had an informal chat with the Headmaster, and asked if he would be interested in my coming into the school to demonstrate the features and benefits of building with cob.


The Headmaster showed an interest and asked me to get in touch in the New Year..


Today I met with the Headmaster (Mr Rose) and Mr Hayden who is part of the D&T department. I explained in detail that I would like to come into the school during the finer weather and help the children build a large cob oven, big enough to bake several loaves of bread.


Mr Rose was very excited at the prospect of this project and all the good it will do for the pupils in the long term.


As this and other projects take shape I will detail it in this blog, so keep an eye out for updates.


As this whole story seems to be leading in a deeply vocational direction, I have decided to establish a company called Cob-It.


Please check out the website:


www.cob-it.co.uk