Slowly, the clay is drying inside the shed. It’s taking a bit longer than I expected, but with the weather getting slowly colder it’s not a surprise. We’ve had a warmer few days over the weekend, and the dry patches are really showing now, which is great news.

I took some time to have a drive up to Ty Mawr and get some pigment samples from them. Once my floor is laid, I am going to have a mess around with making my own paint, and seeing how it turns out. Here are my colours; the sample pots were only £2 each, so I figured it was worth a try!

When painting clay plaster walls, you need to make sure you are using “breathable” paints. The best known paint for clay walls is probably Earthborn paints. But at £60 for a 5L tin, they are a little more than the pots of paint you can pick up in B&Q!

Anyway, regardless of the cost this is my DIY project – the car tyres, straw, clay, the recycled stone patio; it’s all part of a DIY and recycle culture I’m trying to instill in the building, so it would be cheating to use paint off the shelves, when it is (apparently) so easy to make your own paint! So what’s the harm in trying?!

I found a recipe online for Clay paint here, and as it turns out, I bought this book when eading up on clay and lime plaster for the building. As a bonus, I found it has chapters at the back on making limewash and clay paint, so I’ve got plenty of materials ready for this.

I need to exercise patience on this particular task, however. I am well known for rushing into things, and one look at my clay wall will show you my mixes have not been consistently measured. The paint will be the final coat, so it needs to look good! I’ll be documenting my mixes and my test patches properly, so I can happily upload it when I am done. Maybe a few weeks and I can post about the test patches!