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by | June 22, 2019 · 2:11 pm

Focus, focus, focus…

The work goes on to get design details and techniques right and efficient… invented a couple of new ways to make sandcasting concrete rings for door and window frames; almost set up the hinge blacksmithing shed; made a square mesh bender, and more.

The vacuum sandcastle. .. this cuts a profile through packed damp sand and vacuums away the tailings…

This is the shorter square mesh bender. The bolt heads hook onto the rebar beside each strand to be bent and curls them around the tubing as the lever is pulled.

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by | May 23, 2019 · 8:27 pm

Metal and earth

Building the walls today with the steel rebar. Peter is always inventing ways in which to speed up the process and this was his new creation for making process super quick.
Trialing new ways to build the walls using clay. Stuck to the rebar pretty well. We mixed sand, clay, pine wood chips and water to make this sticky formula. Just watching to see how it dries and will be exploring straw and other mixtures to find the right mix.
Wove wire to rebar to reinforce bottom to walls leaving gap so we can infill with clay mixture. Walls will be 200mm and straw/woodchip will provide insulation for walls.

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by | May 20, 2019 · 8:13 pm

Progress on the yard front

Today was an outdoor day getting the yard prepped and ready to start our first build…looking more organised and ready for action! Peter taught me how to use some fancy tools including a hammer (he is a patient wizard). Cut and bent two walls for the ‘moko haven’ foundations…should call it the yard gym
Even managed to set up a compost heap for when we begin our gnome garden. Hoping Raewyn inspires this project too
Peter is continually thinking and creating molds for designs to inspire us both. It’s a big journey but together and with others…we might just be able to build some magic!

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by | April 15, 2019 · 1:23 pm

NOW We’re starting – grandkid’s den first

After much other setup, some relevant to building good Hobbity tiny homes, some less so, I’ve been re-awakened to the vision to start building DREAMHAVEN..

A young helper/apprentice has appeared and galvanised me to do it NOW… she will build her own tiny cabin after learning with me on this first one for my grandsons Eddie and Bruno (4 and 6, nearly).  Before they grow so much I’ll have to build it grownup size!

Follow this blog for updates:)

First we will set up the Yard at the back of Dreamspace. We’ll build it there and hiab it into place, hopefully the easiest way.

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by | June 26, 2017 · 1:16 pm

Dream havens coming soon

Well it has been a while! I was away selling the Ark up north, and now I’m back in Gisborne and Dreamspace is getting closer to hosting the building of the first real live ‘hobbit’ haven. While I was away we lost the hobbithaven domain because my email peter at eutopia went west. So, I rethought and decided it’s a blessing in disguise, since our styles are not limited to a ‘hobbity’ look, but encompass Elven and Aedenic as well… and we have had the question of copyright about the name Hobbit, at least for a main name for it.

Watch this space – our first cabin will be a very ‘hobbity’ one, for the grandsons 🙂 We have been up the garden path so to speak, at the Gisborne environment centre, making the edging for their path and a spiral herb garden, and now hopefully a few raised beds…

There are some other projects ordered too. The sculptural ferrocement is in demand!

 

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by | June 12, 2016 · 6:39 pm

Action at last – Hobbit haven has a base!

From my pecha kucha talk ‘Sailing to Eutopia – Dreamspaces built and imagined’,  (see  Youtube:

came this article, in the Gisborne Herald weekender supplement, 11/6/16.  The Hobbit havens will be built in the back yard of the Dreamspace Gallery and Workshops, then trucked to wherever they are wanted. The large workshop space means we can have a whole area for sandcasting, another for bandsawing lovely wood for fitting out the interiors,  plenty for storage, etc.

photo of my gisborne profile article REDUCED 11 june 2016

 

Thanks to Natasha who bravely interviewed me and managed to make something coherent of it (and who let me see it and tweak before publication). And the photographer – a nice young man who came, smiled, arranged doglets and wizards, and left. Of course, there were one or two minor factual corrections; mainly that of course the pictured playhut is not a true hobbit haven, as it isn’t curved and is very little…

 

 

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by | April 18, 2016 · 7:50 am

Another World and its houses

Apples of Aeden the epic now has an exciting offshoot: the study and replication of Aedenyan architecture! This model I’m working on (excuse the roughness but I had to share now) is the first attempt to materialise it here on Edartha… A traditional Aedenyan starfish-shaped cottage. More to come I hope! These will soon start appearing on Earth, the Lady willing. A good complement to the Hobbit style I think. An Elvish influence as well…

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by | March 5, 2015 · 11:06 pm

Hello Middle Earth!

This is exciting and tentative in that I need to apply for permissions from middle earth dot com – under way! I plan to make hobbitholes, cabins etc, all in durable, incredibly strong and above all sculptural and curvaceous ferrocement. See www.fantasticferrocement.com for my creations so far – also cafe Eutopia – google images has pages of photos uploaded by enchanted customers..

As a lifelong (60 years!) fan of Tolkien, hut cabin and treehouse builder, not to mention fantasy cafe builder (Cafe Eutopia – see www.eutopia.co.nz) and fantasy writer (Apples of Aeden, Sword of the Fifth Element), it was natural that when I saw the latest Middle Earth Air New Zealand safety video last week I got to thinking: why not go with that flow and specifically build for Hobbits-at-heart – as well as our honorary Elves, Dwarfs and Men of the West of course!

I’ve built a ferrocement gardens for my daughter Anna and now her son, coming up two, is to have a little Hobbit cabin/playhouse in the woods at the bottom of their garden in Gisborne.

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