Last week we went on an overnight trip to the Íslenski Bærinn Turf Houses. This has been one of the best experiences of the semester. Hannes, who runs the place, probably knows more about turf houses than anyone else in the world, and I was delighted to be in his presence.
While we were there, our project was to pick one out of the nearly hundred photos lining the walls and sculpt it. Most of the pictures were of turf houses while a few were of different structures from around the world. I personally chose to sculpt a rickety house that was built into a hill. I later found out during the frequent critiques of our sculpting that it was not a house, but a barn. This is why it was so rickety and did not even appear to have a door. After we had sculpted our houses, it was time to paint them in true Icelandic turf house colors. Hannes gave us the all inclusive lesson of how people used to mix the paints, what exact colors they used, and how long each paint took to dry. This was actually my favorite part of the whole experience. As an art minor, I found the making your own paint portion of the presentation super interesting, as I have never made paint before. Hopefully when I get back home this is something that I will start experimenting with. After the paint presentation, another coffee break, and lunch we were able to paint our little turf houses with the historically correct colors that we learned all about.
My favorite quote from Hannes, “If you don’t have the right tool, go make it”. (Pictured are some of the beautiful tools he has carved for ceramics works.)
The other incredible thing about this trip was staying in the turf house for the night. I felt like I was at some turf house sustainability camp. We slept in the short beds only kept warm by our body heat and Casey who kept restocking our wood stove throughout the night. It was the coziest little house I have ever been in.
Happy Trails,
Sara Beadle
