Bango Art Music Video on YouTube

BB Bango Art Music Video

on YouTube. All BB Bango art has powdered clay mixed with the paint used for the painting.

Brick Shortage in the UK and Eire

25th November 2013 Massive Brick shortage throughout the UK and Eire. Brilliant! - For the few Brickmakers left and now none at all actually making bricks anywhere in Eire - Do we put up our prices or just not discount? The smaller brick companies have bricks ex stock, the big boys have cheaper bricks but still made of clay with up to 18 weeks wait for them. Channel 4, a week ago on their nightly news, highlighted the brick shortage as did BBC South and other local programmes. The only bricks that are readily available are mini clay bricks for modelling! So should bricks be made on the Isle of Wight again ? Yes, Maybe.....

Art by BB Bango using powdered clay in paint

BB Bango artist based in Isle of Wight and linked to ClayClay uses powdered clay with his paint when painting. Check out his paintings which inlcudes his interpretation of Picasso, Lichtenstein and Hockney paintings at the ClayClay Art page

How to make a Brick Pizza Oven by James May

How to make your own Brick Pizza Oven by James May on his BBC1 ManLab programme broadcast 28th March 2013 See at http://youtu.be/voxS30LFr4g
More on bricks including mini bricks for building kits at ClayClay in the Isle of Wight.

Brikini Music video (Brickini bikini)

Brikini Girls. 3 glamour models dancing to original music from South Island music very much like the old Benny Hill theme tune. All models are wearing brikinis made from mini clay bricks see Videos at www.clayclay.co.uk

Painting on terracotta animation

Artist BB Bango www.clayclay.co.uk (Art page) painting his latest masterpiece 'ClaySails' onto 20*30cm Terracotta tile using powdered clay and acrylic paint. Timelapse animation. See video at http://youtu.be/pCVpVGsSAbs

Brick is Beautiful video

Brick is Beautiful. Fun music video showing what 'fun' Bricks are. Find out more about the 1,800 different types of brick on the UK brick market by visiting www.brickdirectory.co.uk See Brick is Beautiful video at http://youtu.be/FC-o4aYXw-g

mini brick Time lapse Animation

Mini Brick timelapse animation from www.minibrick.co.uk See video clip at http://youtu.be/DBiBzIR6Ey8

Making bricks for Newcomen beam engine

York Handmade bricks specially hand moulded and fired in traditional clamp kiln for use in the restoration of the Black Country Museum Newcomen beam steam engine. Video clip taken from Channel 4 production How Britain Works series 1 episode 4 first shown November 2012 http://youtu.be/Sack4eiYN4o More on bricks at www.yorkhandmade.co.uk and www.brickdirectory.co.uk

London Brick Video

London Brick Co as visited by Michael Portillo on his Great British Railway Journeys programme. Video clip taken from January 2013 BBC2 broadcast. http://youtu.be/4dtngftkX0I www.brickdirectory.co.uk

Crocks (broken clay and terracotta) at bottom of pots Daily Telegraph 23rd March 2013

'Fill the bottom of the pot with extra drainage material, such as polystyrene pieces or crocks,” says the RHS book How to Garden. Most people seem to agree: the BBC Gardeners’ World website has instructions on planting up scores of different kinds of pots, but all begin with some variation on: “Place a layer of crocks in the bottom of the pot to improve drainage.” So there you are, summer is just around the corner and you’re happily chucking broken crocks into the bottom of a plant container before adding some compost. While you’re doing this, “textural discontinuities”, “capillary barriers” and “funnelled flow” are probably not uppermost in your mind. But maybe they should be. Soil scientists, hydrologists and environmental engineers have long known that peculiar things happen at the junction between two layers of soil with different textures, and especially when a fine layer sits on top of a coarse layer. For example, scientists trying to track the movement of fertilisers, pesticides or other contaminants down soil profiles sometimes find that if the stuff they’re following encounters such a discontinuity (especially if it’s not perfectly level), it can stop heading downwards and zip off sideways, ending up a long way from where they expected to find it. Fair enough, you may think, but what has that got to do with me, and can I go back to planting up my pots? Yes, in a minute, but first here’s another funny thing. Because it resists compaction and provides good drainage, sand is the basis of most modern golf course putting greens. But the downside of sand is that it holds little water, dries out rapidly and needs a lot of watering. The most popular solution to this problem is around 300mm of sand over a 100mm layer of gravel. Capillary forces within the sand mean that water is unwilling to cross from the (relatively fine) sand to the (much coarser) gravel, creating what hydrologists and geologists call a “perched” water table, essentially one that is higher up than it should be, and above the “real” water table. Maybe you’re now starting to see the parallel between the sand and gravel beneath a putting green and the compost and crocks in your plant pot. Both are a fine layer over a coarse layer. But the former is designed to reduce water loss from the fine layer and keep it wetter than it would otherwise be, while the latter, if we believe the gardening books, is to improve drainage and keep the fine layer drier. They can’t both be right, although in a sense they are. During heavy rain, the putting-green sand layer eventually becomes saturated, gravity overcomes capillary forces and the water has nowhere else to go but into the gravel, where it drains away rapidly. So the sand/gravel sandwich is well-drained. But once the surplus water has drained away, the sand remains wetter than it would be if it were just sitting on more sand. Exactly the same happens in your plant pot. When you pour enough water in the top of the pot to saturate the compost, gravity overcomes the capillary barrier at the compost/crocks boundary and it drains away through the crocks and out of the drainage hole. But it would do exactly the same if the crocks weren’t there, and when you stop watering, you’re left with a perched water table in either case, crocks or no crocks. The only difference is that if there’s a layer of crocks, the water table is perched at the compost/crocks boundary, and if there isn’t, it’s at the bottom of the pot. So there’s no harm in continuing to bung crocks in the bottom of containers if you feel you ought to, or because your mother did, but be aware that their only practical effect is to reduce the volume of compost available for plant roots. More at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningadvice/9946017/Using-crocks-to-help-containers-drain-A-potty-idea.html

Another brick in the wall

Artists of former Soviet countries are having recent work, such as Alexei Rumyantsev's The Wall, sold by Sotheby's in london at its first exhibition focusing on the region. More bricks at www.clayclay.co.uk and www.brickdirectory.co.uk

mini bricks mentioned on Radio 4 23rd March 2013

Mention of mini bricks as part of 3d printing at Islington Design Show. Broadcast 23rd March 2013 on radio 4
http://youtu.be/SNT5XZSOUXQ

More details on mini bricks at www.minibrick.co.uk and bid bricks at www.brickdirectory.co.uk

Reclaimed bricks and Handmade Bricks

Building with reclaimed bricks The appeal of reclaimed bricks is undoubtedly their charm and character. Fully matured and weathered, they have a certain cachet as they are less widely available than new bricks and have a distinct appearance. They can be more expensive than new bricks, which are manufactured to an established standard. One reason for this is considerable labour involved in demolition, cleaning off old mortar, selecting, stockpiling and handling. Reclaimed bricks may be selected for aesthetic reasons, but they must be technically appropriate for new work. Many dealers supply reclaimed bricks graded by quality of appearance, but cannot guarantee durability. Specifiers should therefore check that their indemnity insurance policies cover the specification of reclaimed brick, as these products are not in accordance with a British Standard. Frost resistance, soluble salts, strength, water absorption and size are all items that are covered by this standard. A further consideration might be that spores of dry rot fungus could be present within the pores of bricks reclaimed from some locations. The metric standard brick size was adopted in 1974 and is slightly smaller than the former imperial standard brick. Before 1904 there were no standards, only popularly used sizes. If imperial bricks are used with a standard metric concrete block inner skin, adjustable wall ties may be required to overcome the differences in alignment of the bed joints created between the two. Many specifiers choose reclaimed bricks in the belief that there is no alternative to the distressed state of re-used brick. Several companies continue to make handmade bricks, however using the same methods as brick-makers have done over the centuries, while other companies have developed simulated handmade bricks which are manufactured using modern machine methods. In recent years some manufacturers have developed brick products that look as though they have been reclaimed, with chipped arises, paint remnants and random dark stains. They have the great advantage of being made to conform to British Standards and are competitively priced because they are mass produced.

Mini Bricks

At ClayClay - manuafacture of mini bricks from York and Isle of Wight clay. Unlike Lego the mini bricks require a made up mortar - flour and sand mix (which dissolves in water so one can start again. Mini Brick building kits are available as well as bags of bricks and accessories.