Hello! About a year ago I made a post about our earth candle holders. Here I write the post again, adding information for those wanting to participate in the workshop at Årsta Kyrka:

RAMMED EARTH CANDLE POTS
Date: Wednesday 20th of May 2015, 18.30-21.00
Location: Bråviksvägen 47, 120 52 Årsta
For more information: David Martinez at 0727126898 or david@earthlabstudio.com
To join a workshop: send an email to info@earthlabstudio.com. Write your name, phone number and name of the workshop you want to take.

About the form, I was trying to create a similar shape of candle holders I have seen in many shops here in Sweden; some of them of glass, others of concrete. Why raw earth? In my opinion the texture is just beautiful; earth does not burn, it is a durable, recycled and ecological material.

So first, the tools.

The tricky part can be the earth composition. What you can do is go to a building site and take some buckets of non-contaminated earth (since you don´t want organic soil), usually contractors have no problems with you taking some of their “dirt”. Once you have the soil, the next steps are piece of cake; the ramming goes really fast, one person could make four holders in about an hour.

Take some paper and spread oil inside the mortar so the earth won´t stick to it while ramming. Then put earth into the mortar and start compressing. You can use a hammer, wooden sticks or whatever you think is easy to compress as hard as you can. Remember to do the candle whole while ramming (use wood or any hard material to create the shape). After finishing ramming you don´t have to wait to take the pot out, it is ready!

Here is a short video of how you can tap the “form” to get the pot out:

Rammed Earth Candle Holder

If you want to be precise with the earth composition, it is 30% clay and 70% aggregates (sand and gravel); since we are not making walls or bricks, you need to take away the big stones. The soil needs to be wetted, around 10% in volume compared to earth.

Hope to see you in the workshop!!

-David