[Cob] (Cob) Mosaic

[Barbara Roemer]

Ellen, you might experiment with the mosaic.  I haven't set more than a
little tile into cob, but for our bathroom earthen floor, I wanted two
areas of tile: one at the bathtub as a step out, and another at the back
door which leads from the bathroom to the back yard and has a lot of
traffic.  When we did the floor, I cut pieces of plywood as placeholders
for the tile, to the size  & pattern of the tile plus the grout, and thus
reserved the space for tiles. Each patch is about 24" x 30".   When the
floor was dry, I removed the plywood placeholders, and mixed a very dry cob
mix with a bit of cement added to it to bond well to the underlying
aggregate.  I set the tiles in the damp earth/cement mix and let that dry
thoroughly.  Then I grouted with a very sandy cob mix to which I added a
lot of #9 floor oil.  Everything is level, and the area adjacent to the tub
and the back door all resist dirt and abrasion very well, and it's all easy
to mop up.  Good luck messing about with it!

Barbara

-- 

We are silence,
We are golden,
We are billion-year-old carbon,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

                                                   -Joni Mitchell