Plaza at Chimayo

Anselmo Jaramillo "the last adobodero of Chimayo"

 

We took a little road trip to  to meet "last adobedero of Chimayo," Anselmo Jaramillo. Anselmo is an instructor at Northern New Mexico Community College (where they have a great inexpensive Adobe building program), and a man passionate about adobe . Anselmo was born in Chimayo thus born into northern New Mexico Adobe. He has traveled extensively in Mexico restoring many adobe structures. His project that he showed us in Chimayo though is inspired by the buildings of Hassan Fathy who he learned of through "his hero" Simone Swan of Adobe Alliance. Anselmo is passionate about using only the materials he can find on his 5 acres in Chimayo thus  he has employed a foundation of stone and mud mortar and the vaulted and dome roofs of Egypt. He has his on website that will  explain more of what he is up to. adobeclass.blogspot.com/ 

What I want to experiment with after talking to Anselmo is with making insulation from straw. I have done a little experimentation making straw clay blocks as insulation but what he talked about sounded simpler. Make a wheel barrel of clay slip and dip wedges of straw as they separate from bale, air dry and there you go. My only hesitation is mice, the philosophy of straw clay is to coat each piece of straw to make it mouse proof.