Cob playscape designed by Tempe Sikora

Cob is a 100% natural building material made of clay, sand, and straw.
These animals were built during and finished after the 2008 Kerrville Folk Festival at Quiet Valley Ranch, in Kerrville Texas.
Thanks to all the many volunteers for their help, with special gratitude to Melissa, Owen, Sara, John, Jamie, Crystal, Susan, and Shep.


The Kidsville dragon, whom many people call "Puff":

Puff before his color and sealing, but with his fancy red clay saddles ready to ride:	Puff after his first coat of plaster:

Building Puff's foundation with rocks and cob mortar:	The kids learning to make cob (they loved adding water with the hose!):
photo courtesy of John Curry - flickr site	photo courtesy of John Curry - flickr site

And here's the sea turtle, big enough for many kids to ride (he'll be painted soon):	Here he is in the raw cob stage, prior to plastering & sculpting:

In addition to the cob animals, some final plastering work was completed on two of the natural buildings constructed during the October 2007 Natural Building Colloquium. Both the MixMaster and Kidsville Sandbox structures were given final coats of fine local caliche-based earthen plaster, and then sealed with potassium silicate. The bench at MixMaster was finished with a rich red clay from east of Austin and sealed with linseed oil. To find out more about natural building and the Colloquium, click here.

	photo above courtesy of Black Shepherd - blog